Time \Time\, n.; pl. Times. [OE. time, AS. t[=i]ma, akin to
t[=i]d time, and to Icel. t[=i]mi, Dan. time an hour, Sw.
timme. [root]58. See Tide, n.]
1. Duration, considered independently of any system of
measurement or any employment of terms which designate
limited portions thereof.
The time wasteth [i. e. passes away] night and day.
--Chaucer.
I know of no ideas . . . that have a better claim to
be accounted simple and original than those of space
and time. --Reid.
2. A particular period or part of duration, whether past,
present, or future; a point or portion of duration; as,
the time was, or has been; the time is, or will be.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.
--Heb. i. 1.
3. The period at which any definite event occurred, or person
lived; age; period; era; as, the Spanish Armada was
destroyed in the time of Queen Elizabeth; -- often in the
plural; as, ancient times; modern times.
4. The duration of one's life; the hours and days which a
person has at his disposal.
Believe me, your time is not your own; it belongs to
God, to religion, to mankind. --Buckminster.
5. A proper time; a season; an opportunity.
There is . . . a time to every purpose. --Eccl. iii.
1.
The time of figs was not yet. --Mark xi. 13.
6. Hour of travail, delivery, or parturition.
She was within one month of her time. --Clarendon.
7. Performance or occurrence of an action or event,
considered with reference to repetition; addition of a
number to itself; repetition; as, to double cloth four
times; four times four, or sixteen.
Summers three times eight save one. --Milton.
8. The present life; existence in this world as contrasted
with immortal life; definite, as contrasted with infinite,
duration.
Till time and sin together cease. --Keble.
9. (Gram.) Tense.
10. (Mus.) The measured duration of sounds; measure; tempo;
rate of movement; rhythmical division; as, common or
triple time; the musician keeps good time.
Some few lines set unto a solemn time. --Beau. &
Fl.
Note: Time is often used in the formation of compounds,
mostly self-explaining; as, time-battered,
time-beguiling, time-consecrated, time-consuming,
time-enduring, time-killing, time-sanctioned,
time-scorner, time-wasting, time-worn, etc.
Absolute time, time irrespective of local standards or
epochs; as, all spectators see a lunar eclipse at the same
instant of absolute time.
Apparent time, the time of day reckoned by the sun, or so
that 12 o'clock at the place is the instant of the transit
of the sun's center over the meridian.
Astronomical time, mean solar time reckoned by counting the
hours continuously up to twenty-four from one noon to the
next.
At times, at distinct intervals of duration; now and then;
as, at times he reads, at other times he rides.
Civil time, time as reckoned for the purposes of common
life in distinct periods, as years, months, days, hours,
etc., the latter, among most modern nations, being divided
into two series of twelve each, and reckoned, the first
series from midnight to noon, the second, from noon to
midnight.
Common time (Mil.), the ordinary time of marching, in which
ninety steps, each twenty-eight inches in length, are
taken in one minute.
Equation of time. See under Equation, n.
In time.
(a) In good season; sufficiently early; as, he arrived in
time to see the exhibition.
(b) After a considerable space of duration; eventually;
finally; as, you will in time recover your health and
strength.
Mean time. See under 4th Mean.
Quick time (Mil.), time of marching, in which one hundred
and twenty steps, each thirty inches in length, are taken
in one minute.
Sidereal time. See under Sidereal.
Standard time, the civil time that has been established by
law or by general usage over a region or country. In
England the standard time is Greenwich mean solar time. In
the United States and Canada four kinds of standard time
have been adopted by the railroads and accepted by the
people, viz., Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific
time, corresponding severally to the mean local times of
the 75th, 90th, 105th, and 120th meridians west from
Greenwich, and being therefore five, six, seven, and eight
hours slower than Greenwich time.
Time ball, a ball arranged to drop from the summit of a
pole, to indicate true midday time, as at Greenwich
Observatory, England. --Nichol.
Time bargain (Com.), a contract made for the sale or
purchase of merchandise, or of stock in the public funds,
at a certain time in the future.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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