outta time
- idiom
- /ˈaʊtə taɪm/
- Informal
- Well, I'm sorry, Janie, but, uh... I'm fresh outta time.
Examples
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You're outta time!
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We're running outta time.
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I think we outta time.
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Ya just ran outta time, cop!
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We 'bout ran outta time. # HANK #
Fiction book (1990) -
Jingshui said we ran outta time.
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We're running outta time.
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But I'm outta time.
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You need to hurry; we're outta time for this meeting.
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If you don’t finish your homework soon, you’ll be outta time before the deadline.
Synonyms
Not enough time left to finish something
Not having enough time to do what you need
When you have very little time you need to hurry
There is only a short time left to do something
How Urgent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'outta time' is an informal spelling of 'out of time' meaning 'having no time left', and this meaning is directly derivable from combining 'out (of)' with 'time'. Despite its colloquial pronunciation, the compositional pattern is common and cross-linguistically recognizable, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it.
Etymology
Outta time comes from the simple image of a clock or hourglass that has run out, where outta means 'out of' and time is finished. So, if you are outta time, you are 'having no time left'.