lose time

English

Verb

lose time (third-person singular simple present loses time, present participle losing time, simple past and past participle lost time)

  1. (of a clock) To run slow and not keep accurate time.
    Antonym: gain time
  2. (of a person etc.) To fall behind schedule.
    Antonyms: keep time, lose no time
    • 1925, DH Lawrence, “The Willful Woman”, in St. Mawr and Other Stories, page 1:
      On the third day the train lost time more and more. She raged with painful impatience. No good, at every station the train sat longer.
    • 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 131/132:
      There are the engines that develop ill-health and begin to lose time, or the wagons that develop hot boxes and have to be removed, initiating delays that steadily pile up—or at worst, the weather lays its hand on the whole District.
    • 2026 January 7, 'Mystery Shopper', “Cornish cream - without the jams?”, in RAIL, number 1052, page 48:
      At Par, 150207 is the unit for the 1416 to Newquay. It is quite tatty and lacks tables - but does have plug sockets. It sounds laboured as it leaves, and while it sounds like it's struggling as it tackles Luxulyan, it's not losing time.
  3. To waste time.

Translations

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.