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Time

.

Time and tide wait for no man.

“For the next inn he spurs a main.

In haste alights, and scuds away—

But time and tide for no man stay.”


Somerville: The Sweet-scented Miser.

Take [or Seize] Time by the forelock (Thaʹlēs of Milétus.). Time is represented as an old man, quite bald, with the exception of a single lock of hair on the forehead. Shakespeare calls him “that bald sexton, Time.” (King John, iii. 1.)

Time is, Time was, Time’s past. Friar Bacon made a brazen head, and it was said if he heard his head speak he would succeed in his work in hand, if not he would fail. A man named Miles was set to watch the head, and while Bacon was sleeping the head uttered these words: “Time Is;” and half an hour afterwards it said “Time Was;” after the expiration of another half-hour it said “TimeʹS Past,” fell down, and was broken to pieces.


“Like Friar Bacon’s brazen head, Iʹve spoken:

Time is, time was, time’s past.”


Byron: Don Juan, i. 217–8.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Tigers
Tigernach
Tight
Tigris [the Arrow]
Tike
Tilbert (Sir)
Tile
Tile Loose
Tile a Lodge
Timber-toe (A)
Time
Time-bargain (A)
Time of Grace
Time-honoured Lancaster
Times (The)
Timoleon
Timon of Athens
Tin
Tine-man (The)
Ting
Tinker