just in time
167
3.5
- idiom
:
justo a tiempo
- She arrived at the airport just in time to catch her flight.
- caught just in time
Good news, my face is done just in time for the luggage to arrive.
- Good news, my face is done just in time for the luggage to arrive.
- So we did get here just in time, but there's not much snowfall.
- The casserole came out of the oven just in time for dinner in a fragrant cloud.
- The spring pollen onslaught dwindles by Midsummer, just in time for ragweed season.
Examples
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But their parents arrived just in time and saved them.
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Yeah, we made it just in time with a minute to spare.
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I finished the book just in time last night and I loved it.
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So I get there just in time for the class, right?
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These are arriving just in time for summer.
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Just in time for lunch.
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Just in time for the 6:00 news, right?
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Just in time for supper.
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I could not be more excited to be back home and just in time for some fall foliage.
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You're just in time to choose the plates for your party.
Synonyms
524
1.1
Before the last moment, early enough not to be late
171
1.7
Happens at a time that is early enough, not too late
101
2.5
Happening just before the last possible moment to act
14
3.5
Just before it is too late
3
4.5
The last moment before a deadline when it is almost too late
Happens just in time before it is too late
Antonyms
How Late
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'just' (very shortly) with 'in time' (before a deadline), so its meaning 'at the last possible moment' is directly and predictably derived from the constituent words. This temporal composition is cross-linguistically common (e.g., Spanish 'justo a tiempo') and follows standard English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will typically understand it.
Etymology
Just in time paints a picture of someone arriving at the very last second, like jumping onto a bus just as the doors close. So it means 'at the last possible moment', just before it would be 'too late'.