English

Alternative forms

• un-time

Noun

untime ‎(countable and uncountable, plural untimes)

1. The absence of time; timelessness
   • 1999, Pierre François, Inlets of the Soul:

     Actually, his apocalypse is a reverse cosmogony: he features himself as a monstrous Leviathan swallowing all the faithful, and the Untime celebrated by "unceasing" clock-chiming seals the reign of death and the return to pre-cosmogonic chaos. Death, not life, is what the imam has to offer to the faithful of Desh.

   • 2000, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses:

     The body of Al-Lat has shrivelled on the grass, leaving behind only a dark stain; and now every clock in the capital city of Desh begins to chime, and goes on unceasingly, beyond twelve, beyond twenty-four, beyond one thousand and one, announcing the end of Time, the hour that is beyond measuring, the hour of the exile's return, of the victory of water over wine, of the commencement of the Untime of the Imam.

   • 2011, Adeline Radloff, Sidekick:

     Later though, after about two weeks in untime, Finn began to get confused, and my job changed to simply keeping him straight.

   • 2014, William Gallois, Time, Religion and History:

     Nirvana, as we shall see, is a time rather than a place, but it is better still described as an un-time.

   • 2015, John O'Loughlin, Black Sabbaticals:

     [...] thereby enabling us to distinguish the volume and space of the one from the untime and unmass of the other, space and untime flanking its relative fulcrum (volume) and thrice-bovaryized relative opposite (unmass) as bovaryized absolutes.

   • 2015, Judith Inggs, Transition and Transgression:

     While everyone else is frozen in untime Katie is unaffected and therefore acts as his sidekick in his efforts to avert disaster, death and devastation—[...]

2. (obsolete, often used in plural) A wrong time; an unsuitable or improper time.

Etymology 2

From Middle English untime, from Old English untīme.

Adjective

untime ‎(comparative more untime, superlative most untime)

1. (obsolete) Untimely.

Anagrams

• minuet
• minute

Old English

Etymology

From un- + tīme.

Adjective

untīme

1. untimely

Descendants

• English: untime