"clock is ticking" meaning in English

See clock is ticking in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Audio: en-au-clock is ticking.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} clock is ticking
  1. (idiomatic, almost always preceded by the and often followed by for) Time is running out; a deadline is approaching. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Time Synonyms: clock is running Related terms: time flies Translations (time is running out; a deadline is approaching): l’horloge tourne (French), az óra ketyeg (Hungarian), klukkan tifar (Icelandic), zegar tyka (Polish)
    Sense id: en-clock_is_ticking-en-phrase-PPQUYG82 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for clock is ticking meaning in English (3.1kB)

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          "orig": "en:Time",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1922, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 2, in The Great Prince Shan",
          "text": "I have the feeling that even while the clock is ticking we are moving on to terrible things.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986 April 23, James Reston, “Washington The Ticking Clock”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-12-22",
          "text": "The clock is ticking for Mikhail Gorbachev too. Of all the failures of political and economic theory in this century, the Soviet failure is the most spectacular.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 February 19, Alasdair Palmer, “‘We know the clock is ticking. Kidnap is a murder waiting to happen’”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2015-12-22",
          "text": "We know the clock is ticking, and the longer it takes us to find the person who has been kidnapped, the less likely the case is to have a successful outcome.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 November 12, John Ibbitson, “Politics notebook: Clock is ticking for Trudeau to resettle 25,000 refugees”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2015-12-22",
          "text": "The clock is ticking. And with every tick, the Trudeau government’s goal of bringing 25,000 refugees from the Middle East to Canada by the end of the year grows more improbable.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "(idiomatic, almost always preceded by the and often followed by for) Time is running out; a deadline is approaching."
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        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
          "word": "l’horloge tourne"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
          "word": "az óra ketyeg"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
          "word": "klukkan tifar"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
          "word": "zegar tyka"
        }
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
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      "examples": [
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          "ref": "1922, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 2, in The Great Prince Shan",
          "text": "I have the feeling that even while the clock is ticking we are moving on to terrible things.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986 April 23, James Reston, “Washington The Ticking Clock”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-12-22",
          "text": "The clock is ticking for Mikhail Gorbachev too. Of all the failures of political and economic theory in this century, the Soviet failure is the most spectacular.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 February 19, Alasdair Palmer, “‘We know the clock is ticking. Kidnap is a murder waiting to happen’”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2015-12-22",
          "text": "We know the clock is ticking, and the longer it takes us to find the person who has been kidnapped, the less likely the case is to have a successful outcome.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2015 November 12, John Ibbitson, “Politics notebook: Clock is ticking for Trudeau to resettle 25,000 refugees”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2015-12-22",
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        "(idiomatic, almost always preceded by the and often followed by for) Time is running out; a deadline is approaching."
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      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "clock is running"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
      "word": "l’horloge tourne"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
      "word": "az óra ketyeg"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
      "word": "klukkan tifar"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "time is running out; a deadline is approaching",
      "word": "zegar tyka"
    }
  ],
  "word": "clock is ticking"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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