"mark time" meaning in English

See mark time in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-mark time.ogg [Australia] Forms: marks time [present, singular, third-person], marking time [participle, present], marked time [participle, past], marked time [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} mark time (third-person singular simple present marks time, present participle marking time, simple past and past participle marked time)
  1. (marching) To march in place, while still in step with the beat. Related terms: bide one's time
    Sense id: en-mark_time-en-verb-ZjZjBGRt Categories (other): Marching
  2. (by extension, figuratively) To stop making progress temporarily; to wait or stand still. Tags: broadly, figuratively Translations (to stop making progress): yerdə saymaq (Azerbaijani), jalan di tempat (Indonesian), топта́ться на ме́сте (toptátʹsja na méste) (Russian)
    Sense id: en-mark_time-en-verb-dLYa4rQ3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 43 57 Disambiguation of 'to stop making progress': 2 98

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for mark time meaning in English (4.5kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "marks time",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "marking time",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "marked time",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "marked time",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "mark time (third-person singular simple present marks time, present participle marking time, simple past and past participle marked time)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Marching",
          "orig": "en:Marching",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1821, Pierce Darrow, Winfield Scott, Scott's Militia Tactics […], page 161",
          "text": "When the colonel has given the signal for the music to beat time, he will give the caution for the movement as above; and the lieutenant colonel will immediately give the word to the right wing to mark time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 149",
          "text": "Next, they were ordered to converge on Bischofsburg. They had spent the morning marking time there.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Gary D. Cook, chapter 9, in Teaching Percussion, enchanced third edition, Cengage Learning, page 346",
          "text": "[…] the drum line is a section that needs considerable time to rehearse on its own. […] Always have members stand at attention, in a formation that makes senses […] and reflects formations/configurations actually encourted in the show […], and have them mark time while rehearsing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To march in place, while still in step with the beat."
      ],
      "id": "en-mark_time-en-verb-ZjZjBGRt",
      "links": [
        [
          "marching",
          "marching#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "march",
          "march"
        ],
        [
          "in place",
          "in place"
        ],
        [
          "in step",
          "in step"
        ],
        [
          "beat",
          "beat"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "marching",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(marching) To march in place, while still in step with the beat."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "bide one's time"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "43 57",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1916, Ring W. Lardner, “Three Kings and a Pair”, in The Saturday Evening Post",
          "text": "Monday noon I chased over to the Auditorium and they was only about eighty in line ahead o' me[…] While I was markin' time I looked at the pitchers o' the different actors,",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 September 8, Keith Spera, “Katrina Blues”, in LA Weekly",
          "text": "“If I can put money in their pockets and play some New Orleans music, that’s what I can do.” But he’s only marking time until he can return to New Orleans.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Matthew Hall, The Coroner, Pan Macmillan",
          "text": "She had met plenty of lazy professionals in her time, people content to mark time until retirement, but none of them had still been athletic in their mid forties.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 April 18, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea Champions League exit: Where do 'disjointed, broken' Blues go from here?”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "Chelsea are in the bottom half of the Premier League, out of the Champions League and will not be in it next season while Lampard is now effectively marking time and filling the manager's office until a new occupant can be found.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stop making progress temporarily; to wait or stand still."
      ],
      "id": "en-mark_time-en-verb-dLYa4rQ3",
      "links": [
        [
          "wait",
          "wait"
        ],
        [
          "stand still",
          "stand still"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figuratively) To stop making progress temporarily; to wait or stand still."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "az",
          "lang": "Azerbaijani",
          "sense": "to stop making progress",
          "word": "yerdə saymaq"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "id",
          "lang": "Indonesian",
          "sense": "to stop making progress",
          "word": "jalan di tempat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "toptátʹsja na méste",
          "sense": "to stop making progress",
          "word": "топта́ться на ме́сте"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-mark time.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c8/En-au-mark_time.ogg/En-au-mark_time.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/En-au-mark_time.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "mark time"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "marks time",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "marking time",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "marked time",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "marked time",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "mark time (third-person singular simple present marks time, present participle marking time, simple past and past participle marked time)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "bide one's time"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Marching"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1821, Pierce Darrow, Winfield Scott, Scott's Militia Tactics […], page 161",
          "text": "When the colonel has given the signal for the music to beat time, he will give the caution for the movement as above; and the lieutenant colonel will immediately give the word to the right wing to mark time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 149",
          "text": "Next, they were ordered to converge on Bischofsburg. They had spent the morning marking time there.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Gary D. Cook, chapter 9, in Teaching Percussion, enchanced third edition, Cengage Learning, page 346",
          "text": "[…] the drum line is a section that needs considerable time to rehearse on its own. […] Always have members stand at attention, in a formation that makes senses […] and reflects formations/configurations actually encourted in the show […], and have them mark time while rehearsing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To march in place, while still in step with the beat."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "marching",
          "marching#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "march",
          "march"
        ],
        [
          "in place",
          "in place"
        ],
        [
          "in step",
          "in step"
        ],
        [
          "beat",
          "beat"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "marching",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(marching) To march in place, while still in step with the beat."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1916, Ring W. Lardner, “Three Kings and a Pair”, in The Saturday Evening Post",
          "text": "Monday noon I chased over to the Auditorium and they was only about eighty in line ahead o' me[…] While I was markin' time I looked at the pitchers o' the different actors,",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 September 8, Keith Spera, “Katrina Blues”, in LA Weekly",
          "text": "“If I can put money in their pockets and play some New Orleans music, that’s what I can do.” But he’s only marking time until he can return to New Orleans.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Matthew Hall, The Coroner, Pan Macmillan",
          "text": "She had met plenty of lazy professionals in her time, people content to mark time until retirement, but none of them had still been athletic in their mid forties.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 April 18, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea Champions League exit: Where do 'disjointed, broken' Blues go from here?”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "Chelsea are in the bottom half of the Premier League, out of the Champions League and will not be in it next season while Lampard is now effectively marking time and filling the manager's office until a new occupant can be found.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stop making progress temporarily; to wait or stand still."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "wait",
          "wait"
        ],
        [
          "stand still",
          "stand still"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figuratively) To stop making progress temporarily; to wait or stand still."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-mark time.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c8/En-au-mark_time.ogg/En-au-mark_time.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/En-au-mark_time.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "az",
      "lang": "Azerbaijani",
      "sense": "to stop making progress",
      "word": "yerdə saymaq"
    },
    {
      "code": "id",
      "lang": "Indonesian",
      "sense": "to stop making progress",
      "word": "jalan di tempat"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "toptátʹsja na méste",
      "sense": "to stop making progress",
      "word": "топта́ться на ме́сте"
    }
  ],
  "word": "mark time"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.