time stands still
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English[edit]
Phrase[edit]
- Used to emphasize a moment in time that is either catastrophic or even enjoyable in which one's sense of time is frozen or suspended.
- 1735, William Congreve, Plays ... In two volumes, page 39:
- Life without love is load; and time stands still; what we refuse to him, to Death we give, And then, then only, when we love, we live.
- 1741, Mr. Theobald (Lewis), The Happy Captive, An English Opera:
- Each long moment seems a day, time stands still, when she's away.
- 1828, Abner Kneeland (contributor), The Olive Branch and Christian Inquirer:
- When one event is continuous, time stands still; for we form no idea of time by the presence or continuance of a single event but we do so by the change of other events at the time.
References[edit]
- “time stands still”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.