buy time

English

Etymology

buy + time

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

buy time (third-person singular simple present buys time, present participle buying time, simple past and past participle bought time)

1. (idiomatic) To purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else.

   We need you to buy us some time, so distract the security guard for a few minutes.

   • 2020 September 25, Reuters Staff, “Thai republican hashtag trends after constitution change delayed”, in Reuters‎^[1], Reuters, retrieved 2020-09-25:

     Parliament, dominated by supporters of the government, voted on Thursday to delay making a decision on whether it will amend the constitution. The decision angered protesters and opposition parliamentarians, who accused parliament of trying to buy time.

   Synonym: play for time

Translations

purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 争取时间 (zhēngqǔ shíjiān)

• Dutch: tijd winnen
• Finnish: pelata aikaa, viivytellä (fi)
• French: gagner du temps (fr)
• German: Zeit gewinnen
• Hungarian: húzza az időt
• Italian: guadagnare tempo
• Japanese: 時を稼ぐ (toki wo kasegu)
• Polish: grać na zwłokę (pl)
• Portuguese: ganhar tempo
• Romanian: cumpăra timp
• Russian: вы́играть вре́мя pf (výigratʹ vrémja) ("to win some time")
• Spanish: ganar tiempo
• Thai: ซื้อเวลา (th) (sʉ́ʉ-wee-laa)
• Turkish: vakit kazanmak (tr), zaman kazanmak (tr)
• Vietnamese: câu giờ (vi)