Word.ws English Dictionary

coyote time

coyote time noun: a brief delay between an action and the consequences of that action that has no physical cause and exists only for comedic or gameplay purposes.

Noun

coyote time (uncountable)

  1. (animation) A brief delay between an action and the consequences of that action that has no physical cause and exists only for comedic or gameplay purposes.
    1. (specifically, animation) A brief period after walking off a ledge or platform during which a character is still able to jump.

Origin of coyote time

Named after the animation style of Wile E. Coyote who would frequently float in air for a few seconds after running off of a cliff.

Questions about coyote time

What does coyote time mean?
Coyote time means a brief delay between an action and the consequences of that action that has no physical cause and exists only for comedic or gameplay purposes.
What part of speech is coyote time?
Coyote time is a noun.

Words near coyote time in the dictionary

  1. coyote gourd
  2. coyote gourds
  3. coyote melon
  4. coyote melons
  5. Coyote State
  6. coyote time
  7. coyote tobacco
  8. coyote ugly
  9. coyote willow
  10. coyote's rope
  11. coyote's ropes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coyote 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-coyote time.wav.

Cite this entry: “coyote time.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coyote_time. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.