in the meantime

English

Alternative forms

• in the mean time

Prepositional phrase

in the meantime

1. Meanwhile.

   Synonyms: for the meantime (uncommon), in meantime (nonstandard), this meantime (nonstandard)

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Different Views of Youth and Age”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 101:

     "In the meantime," said Norbourne, "we have arrived at the park-gate, and have not determined whither we shall ride."

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

     But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.

   • 1979, Guy S. Alitto, The Last Confucian: Liang Shu-ming and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity‎^[1], University of California Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 293:

     In the meantime, the long-awaited battle of Hsuchow had started (inauspiciously with the Japanese taking the small walled town to the northeast, T'ai-erh-chuang).

Translations

meanwhile — see meanwhile