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buy time

Idioms

Increase the time available for a specific purpose. For example, Renting an apartment buys them time to look around for a new house.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In the first stages of a pandemic, like early 2020 with Covid, a universal vaccine could buy time and save lives while a specialist vaccine was being developed.

From BBC • Feb. 19, 2026

Jason Schloetzer, a business professor at Georgetown University, told MarketWatch last week that Target was likely looking for “quick wins” to buy time, as investors wait for the retailer’s turnaround plans to generate profit.

From MarketWatch • Oct. 28, 2025

Despite its military prowess, Sparta lacked strategic depth; its king, Archidamus II, therefore urged his countrymen to remonstrate with the Athenians, to buy time while recruiting other distant powers to their side.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025

Grijalva, for her part, said that she thinks Johnson is trying to buy time to convince one of the four Republican lawmakers who signed the Epstein petition — Reps.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2025

I tapped my pencil on my notebook, trying to buy time.

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023