Word.ws English Dictionary

buy time

buy time verb: to purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else.

Verb

buy time (third-person singular simple present buys time, present participle buying time, simple past and past participle bought time)

  1. (idiomatic) To purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else.
    • We need you to buy us some time, so distract the security guard for a few minutes.
    • Parliament, dominated by supporters of the government, voted on Thursday to delay making a decision on whether it will amend the constitution. The decision angered protesters and opposition parliamentarians, who accused parliament of trying to buy time.2020 September 25, Reuters Staff, “Thai republican hashtag trends after constitution change delayed”, in Reuters, Reuters, retrieved 25 Sep 2020

buy time meaning in Thai and Vietnamese

buy time in Thai

purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else
ซื้อเวลา sʉ́ʉ-wee-laa

buy time in Vietnamese

purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else
câu giờ

Synonyms of buy time

Forms of buy time

third-person singular presentbuys time
present participlebuying time
past participlebought time
pastbought time

Questions about buy time

What does buy time mean?
Buy time means to purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else.
What is buy time in Thai?
Buy time in Thai is ซื้อเวลา (sʉ́ʉ-wee-laa). See Buy time meaning in Thai.
What part of speech is buy time?
Buy time is a verb.
What is the past tense of buy time?
The past tense of buy time is bought time.

Words near buy time in the dictionary

  1. buy the rights
  2. buy the rumor
  3. buy the rumor, sell the fact
  4. buy the rumor, sell the news
  5. buy the same horse twice
  6. buy time
  7. buy to let
  8. buy up
  9. buy when it snows and sell when it goes
  10. buy when it snows, sell when it goes
  11. buy with one's ears

Source and license

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

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