better to be late than be dead on time
better to be late than be dead on time phrase: it is better to arrive late than to risk one's life speeding to a destination.
Phrase
better to be late than be dead on time
Origin of better to be late than be dead on time
A play on the term "dead on time" meaning exactly on time, but also meaning deceased.
Questions about better to be late than be dead on time
- What does better to be late than be dead on time mean?
- Better to be late than be dead on time means it is better to arrive late than to risk one's life speeding to a destination.
- What part of speech is better to be late than be dead on time?
- Better to be late than be dead on time is a phrase.
Words near better to be late than be dead on time in the dictionary
- better the devil you know
- better the devil you know than the devil you don't
- better the devil you know than the devil you don't know
- better the devil you know than the one you don't
- better the devil you know than the one you don't know
- better to be late than be dead on time
- better to light a candle than to curse the darkness
- better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness
- better to light one candle than to curse the darkness
- better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness
- better versed
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: better to be late than be dead on time (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “better to be late than be dead on time.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/better_to_be_late_than_be_dead_on_time. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.