time clock
4
3.2
- noun
- /taɪm klɑk/
:
reloj de fichar
- At the end of the day, employees line up to punch their cards into the time clock.
- punch the time clock
I wasn't ready to be punching on the time clock yet and going out to feet first.
- I wasn't ready to be punching on the time clock yet and going out to feet first.
Examples
-
Here are your building layouts and your time clock locations.
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To ensure that employees adhered to the policy, a time clock was placed at the entrance of the building, and employees were required to punch a card upon entering the building.
Academic text (2002) -
And I only had to walk a block to get to the time clock.
Blog text (2) -
A lot of people around here, they gotta punch a time clock.
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Could you take my card and punch it out on the time clock?
Fiction book (2000) -
In a second, the door opens and men move quickly to the time clock.
Fiction book (1990) -
Tony stands by the time clock.
Fiction book (1990) -
In one major city, until recently, teachers were required to punch time clocks when they came to and left school.
Academic text (1995) -
When you leave, you're gonna punch out here at this time clock.
-
Time clocks placed in almost every classroom helped the students adjust to a work routine.
Academic text (1995)
Synonyms
A machine that records when employees start and finish work
How Automated
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a clock used to record employee start and finish times' is directly and transparently derivable from the constituents 'time' (temporal measurement) and 'clock' (timekeeping device): it denotes a clock related to time. This straightforward noun+noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic compounding pattern and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
Time clock comes from the old machine workers used to 'punch in' and 'punch out'. They put a paper card into the clock and it stamped the time when they started or finished work, so time clock means 'to record the times that employees start and finish work'.