Dictionary

high time en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, uncountable) A point in time at which something is considered to be utterly due or even overdue to occur; well past time.
   • I thought it was high time, now or never, before the light was put out, to break the spell in which I had so long been bound. 1851, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby Dick:
   • "But I haven't ridden for years." "Then it's high time you began again." 1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 22, in Right Ho, Jeeves:
   • It is high time to cease sensationalism and war mongering, pause and think twice about where we are heading. 2006 May 9, Hassan Rohani, “Iran's Nuclear Program: The Way Out”, in Time:
   • "But it is high time for me to have done with the argument, as it is to be judged of according to scripture evidence." 1729, John Norman, God's Foreknowledge of contingent Events vindicated, page 27:
   • "I will await no longer," said Lindesay; "it is high time the business were done." 1820, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 21, in The Abbot:
2. (countable, idiomatic) A very enjoyable or exciting experience or period of time.
   • [T]he film intelligently deploys familiar thriller elements: chases; shoot-outs; high-level duplicity; terse, sassy dialogue; and a cast having a high time playing preening villains and wily good guys. 2000 Dec. 11, Richard Corliss, "Cinema: Better Than Tabloid Tattle" (film review of Proof of Life), Time
   • [T]here's going to be a high time in the Blue City tonight. We'll have music and dancing and eating. 1912, L. Frank Baum, chapter 25, in Sky Island:
   • For Alice had lived, from early in her girlhood, a life of flowers, and song, and wine, and dance. . . . And her tight tongue had served her well . . . . [N]one ever heard her gossip of the times of Kalakaua's boathouse, nor of the high times of officers of visiting warships. 1916, Jack London, “When Alice Told Her Soul”, in On the Makaloa Mat: Island Tales:

Forms

Relateds

high noon · last minute

Synonyms

about time · high old time · hoot

Translations (17)

pl dobry czas (very enjoyable or exciting experience or period of time) · cy llawnbryd (point in time at which something is utterly due) · fi korkea aika (point in time at which something is utterly due) · de Heidenspaß (very enjoyable or exciting experience or period of time) · cy hen bryd (point in time at which something is utterly due) · pl najwyższa pora (point in time at which something is utterly due) · de herrliche Zeit (very enjoyable or exciting experience or period of time) · de höchste Zeit (point in time at which something is utterly due) · hu ideje (point in time at which something is utterly due) · de großes Vergnügen (very enjoyable or exciting experience or period of time) · ga mithid (point in time at which something is utterly due) · de höchste Eisenbahn (point in time at which something is utterly due) · nl hoog tijd (point in time at which something is utterly due) · fr il est grand temps (point in time at which something is utterly due) · hu legfőbb ideje (point in time at which something is utterly due) · pl najwyższy czas (point in time at which something is utterly due) · fr il est plus que temps (point in time at which something is utterly due)