timekeeper

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See also: time-keeper
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English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

time +‎ keeper

Noun[edit]

timekeeper (plural timekeepers)

  1. A device that shows the time; a timepiece.
    Synonyms: timepiece, clock, watch
    • 1878 March 30, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic. Lecture Delivered at the Old South Church, March 30, 1878, Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Osgood and Company [], published 1878, →OCLC, page 1:
      The sailors sail by chronometers that do not lose two or three seconds in a year, ever since [Isaac] Newton explained to Parliament that the way to improve navigation was to get good watches, and to offer public premiums for a better time-keeper than any then in use.
  2. A person who keeps records of the hours of attendance of employees.
  3. (sports) A person who records the time elapsed in a sporting event.
    Synonym: timer
  4. (music) The group member who controls the rhythm of the music when a group of musicians play together.
    • 2011, Harris M. Berger, Metal, Rock, and Jazz: Perception and the Phenomenology of Musical Experience, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page 152:
      There was no consensus among jazz musicians about who was the primary timekeeper in a jazz band; some said the drummers and others said the bassist.
  5. (usually with adjective) A person (or something controlled by a person) that is punctual.
    • 1961 April, Warren Smith, “The problems of train regulation - a study of operation at Trent”, in Trains Illustrated, page 217:
      As it happens, the Leicester–Beeston train is quite a good timekeeper—it sometimes runs a few minutes early— []

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