high time
30
3.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
ya es hora
- Excellent business, it's high time to sell or buy.
I feel like it's high time for a break.
- I feel like it's high time for a break.
- So I think it's high time that I sat down and gave you all the reasons that I think you just might want to consider a foldable.
- And it's about high time countries start listening to their voters.
Examples
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Now, I say it's high time we put an end to this plague.
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I feel like it's high time for a break.
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And so I think it's now high time to try and test this thing out.
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So I think it's now high time to check it out in more detail.
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Then it's high time that you learned.
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I said it was high time to go shopping.
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It's high time we got to know each other better.
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I think it's high time we let our hair down here.
Fiction book (1996) -
And it's about high time countries start listening to their voters.
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It's high time we made some changes to our outdated policies.
Synonyms
60
4.9
Say this when something happens later than it should
1
4.6
A good time to take action or make a change
How Overdue
- Informal
30
3.8
492
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase uses 'high' as a metaphorical intensifier with 'time' to mean an appropriate or overdue moment; the link between 'high' (above normal degree) and this sense of timeliness is not strictly compositional. A B1 learner who knows both words might infer a general sense of importance or urgency but would probably not predict the precise meaning 'it is overdue that...' without prior exposure, so the expression is partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase high time may come from the picture of the sun being high in the sky at the best time to act. So saying high time means it is the right moment and 'overdue' to do something.