Word.ws English Dictionary

borrowed time

borrowed time noun: a period of time whose precise duration is not known but which can be expected to be quite limited, and at the end of which one's situation, benefits, or opportunities will be entirely terminated.

Noun

borrowed time (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) A period of time whose precise duration is not known but which can be expected to be quite limited, and at the end of which one's situation, benefits, or opportunities will be entirely terminated.
    • to live on borrowed time
    • [A]t eighty a body is living on borrowed time.1921, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, chapter 31, in Rilla of Ingleside, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →OCLC
  2. A length of time whose duration has traditionally expired, but which continues nonetheless.
    • Having survived when many others died, she decided to make good use of her borrowed time.

Examples of borrowed time in a sentence

  • A century ago you could expect to live 40 years. […] Anything beyond that was borrowed time.1957 August 12, Herman N. Bundesen MD, “Diet and Health”, in Lewiston Daily Sun, retrieved 28 Jun 2011, page 3:
  • "Basically, my back is a career-ending injury." […] It might seem like a Faustian bargain, but Ho is making the best of his borrowed time.1997 August 25, Christopher Clarey, “Ho Returns In Time To Say Farewell”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Jun 2011:
  • The thing about borrowed time is that it always runs out quicker than you want it to.2011, Lisa Wingate, Larkspur Cove, →ISBN, page 193:
  • Ever since the abortive coup, speculation had been that Yevgeny Prigozhin could be living on borrowed time.2023 August 23, Pjotr Sauer, “Prigozhin’s death would leave lasting mark on Russian army and elite”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Questions about borrowed time

What does borrowed time mean?
Borrowed time means a period of time whose precise duration is not known but which can be expected to be quite limited, and at the end of which one's situation, benefits, or opportunities will be entirely terminated.
How do you use borrowed time in a sentence?
A century ago you could expect to live 40 years. […] Anything beyond that was borrowed time.
What part of speech is borrowed time?
Borrowed time is a noun.

Words near borrowed time in the dictionary

  1. borrowed light
  2. borrowed lights
  3. borrowed neutral
  4. borrowed neutrals
  5. borrowed scenery
  6. borrowed time
  7. borrowed trouble
  8. borrowedst
  9. borrowee
  10. borrowees
  11. borrower

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: borrowed 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-borrowed time.ogg.

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