TIME WARP Definition & Meaning

View synonyms for

time warp

noun

a hypothetical eccentricity in the progress of time that would allow movement back and forth between eras or that would permit the passage of time to be suspended.

time warp

noun

any distortion of space-time
a hypothetical distortion of time in which people and events from one age can be imagined to exist in another age
informal��an illusion in which time appears to stand still
he is living in a time warp

Discover More

51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of time warp¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

A stoppage in the passage of time; also, a distortion of time whereby an event or person could hypothetically move from one era to another. For example, Nothing in their lives has changed since the sixties; they're in a time warp, or Having a seventy-year-old actress portray a teenager—that was some time warp! This term originated in science fiction, where it signifies “a supernatural movement from one era to another,” and came to be used more loosely. [c. 1950]

Discover More

Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

It does feel like we are in a time warp in this country right now, and in the last few years.

From

Step into the main floor of the content center and it’s like entering a tee-time time warp, a sweet-spot Smithsonian, with photos, murals, touchscreen kiosks and the faint soundtrack of Masters radio from generations gone by.

From

With fees and tip, it had come to $65—a small fortune for something that looked and tasted like it had traveled through a time warp in a plastic bag.

From

Indeed, Americans have been tussling over the time warp for well over a century now.

From

“I think that Biden is stuck in a much longer-term time warp. He just cannot see things such as… 57 years of occupation, the slaughter in Gaza, except through an Israeli lens,” he says.

From

time value time was

Browse