mark time

see definition of mark time

verbwait around

Synonyms for mark time

verb wait around

abide
bide
bide one's time
cool one's heels
pass time
queue up
tread water
wait

tread water

verb. wait

bide
bide one's time
coast
float
mark time

Word Origin & History

Old English tima "limited space of time," from Proto-Germanic *timon "time" (cf. Old Norse timi "time, proper time," Swedish timme "an hour"), from PIE *di-mon-, from root *da- "cut up, divide" (see tide).

Abstract sense of "time as an indefinite continuous duration" is recorded from late 14c. Personified since at least 1509 as an aged bald man (but with a forelock) carrying a scythe and an hour-glass. In English, a single word encompasses time as "extent" and "point" (French temps/fois, German zeit/mal) as well as "hour" (e.g. "what time is it?" cf. French heure, German Uhr). Extended senses such as "occasion," "the right time," "leisure," or times (v.) "multiplied by" developed in Old and Middle English, probably as a natural outgrowth of phrases like, "He commends her a hundred times to God" (Old French La comande a Deu cent foiz).

Time of day (now mainly preserved in negation, i.e. what someone won't give you if he doesn't like you) was a popular 17c. salutation (e.g. "Good time of day vnto your Royall Grace," "Richard III," I.iii.18). Times as the name of a newspaper dates from 1788. Time warp first attested 1954; time capsule first recorded 1938, in reference to New York World's Fair; time-traveling in the science fiction sense first recorded 1895 in H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine." To do time "serve a prison sentence" is from 1865. Time frame is attested by 1964; time line (also timeline) by 1890; time-limit is from 1880. About time, ironically for "long past due time," is recorded from 1920. Behind the times "old-fashioned" is recorded from 1846, first attested in Dickens.

Example Sentences formark time

While my Party is out of power, there is nothing left for us but to mark time.

Make rattles of something which you can find, and show how to mark time with them.

Sir Moses and Cuddy Flintoff mounting their chairs to mark time.

Bring guns to position and mark time as if marching rapidly.

My stuffy fruitless trip had decided me to mark time no longer.

He would not or could not keep step in the ranks, nor mark time.

Black meanwhile could really do nothing but mark time with one of his Rooks.

If at half step or mark time while obliquing, Oblique, March.

The dial on the machine must mark time with the clock on the wall.

As the singing proceeds they mark time with their hands and feet.

mark time

Synonyms for mark time

dragged

sit tight

tread water

wait

waited

mark time

Synonyms for mark time

More words related to mark time

drag

dragged

sit tight

tread water

wait

waited