borrowed time

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

borrowed time (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) A period of time whose precise duration is not known but which can be expected to be quite limited, and at the end of which one's situation, benefits, or opportunities will be entirely terminated.

   to live on borrowed time

   • 1921, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, chapter 31, in Rilla of Ingleside, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →OCLC:

     [A]t eighty a body is living on borrowed time.

   • 1957 August 12, Herman N. Bundesen MD, “Diet and Health”, in Lewiston Daily Sun, retrieved 28 June 2011, page 3:

     A century ago you could expect to live 40 years. […] Anything beyond that was borrowed time.

   • 1997 August 25, Christopher Clarey, “Ho Returns In Time To Say Farewell”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 June 2011:

     "Basically, my back is a career-ending injury." […] It might seem like a Faustian bargain, but Ho is making the best of his borrowed time.

   • 2011, Lisa Wingate, Larkspur Cove, →ISBN, page 193:

     The thing about borrowed time is that it always runs out quicker than you want it to.

   • 2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 69:

     Several duplicate routes were on borrowed time, having escaped the Beeching cuts of half a decade earlier, but were nevertheless on the hit list for closure because they fell outside the recently devised social grants system.

   • 2023 August 23, Pjotr Sauer, “Prigozhin’s death would leave lasting mark on Russian army and elite”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Ever since the abortive coup, speculation had been that Yevgeny Prigozhin could be living on borrowed time.

2. A length of time whose duration has traditionally expired, but which continues nonetheless.

   Having survived when many others died, she decided to make good use of her borrowed time.

Usage notes

• Often preceded by the preposition on.

References

• “borrowed time”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “be (living) on borrowed time”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.