Time Is Money - Idioms Online

Meaning of Idiom ‘Time Is Money’

Time is money means time is a valuable resource or commodity, so you should do things quickly in order not to squander or waste time. In other words, any time that you waste you could be using to earn money, and the quicker you work the more money you can earn. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,2Spears, Richard A. McGraw-Hill’s American Idioms Dictionary. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008.,

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Usage Notes

This idiom can be used much more figuratively to simply mean that one’s time is valuable. For example, if you must cut a visit short because you have work to do at home, you might say, “Time is money. I have to mow the lawn.”

You don’t literally mean that you will earn money by mowing your lawn. You simply mean that you have things to do and cannot afford to waste time.

Examples Of Use

“Time is money, people. Let’s get this meeting started.”

“I’ve been waiting for this plumber all day but I can’t sit around any longer. Time is money.”

“Starting over will take too much time and time is money.”

“As long as the corporate mantra is time is money, accidents like this will continue to occur.”

“Time is money. Do we have a deal, or not?”

Origin

A version of this idiom was first printed in 1572, time is precious. Even before that, the Athenian orator Antiphon said “the most costly outlay is time.’

However, the modern form seems to have originated in a speech by Benjamin Franklin, in Advice to a Young Tradesman in 1748: “Remember that time is money.”

Charles Dickens used it in Nicholas Nickleby in 1839: “Time is money…And very good money too to those who reckon interest by it.” 3Ammer, Christine. The Dictionary of Cliches: a Word Lover’s Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014.,4Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

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