half-timen.adv.adj.
/ˌhɑːfˈtʌɪm/, U.S. /ˈhæfˌtaɪm/ A. n.
1. A period of time, usually understood as half a year, that is half the duration of a ‘time’ (see time n. 1b(b)) as mentioned in certain biblical passages.With uses such as ‘a time, times, and an half time’ in quot. 1772, cf. a time and times and half a time at time n. 1b(b).
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the world > time > [noun] > stretch, period, or portion of time > half of
half-time1662
semi-time1664
1536 T. Revel tr. F. Lambert Summe Christianitie i. f. 5v By tyme and tymes, that is to say longe tyme & halfe tyme [L. dimidium temporis], for the laste tyme where as he thought to reygne perpetually, is cutte of the halfe, when he falleth by lytle and lytle.
1603 A. Dent Ruine of Rome xi. 134 Now the reason, why Antichrists raigne is numbred by dayes, monethes, and halfe times, & all amounting but to three yeares and a halfe, is to note the short continuance thereof.
1662 Pagitt's Heresiogr. (new ed.) 282 Months, weeks, daies, and half-times, and such like Chronology.
1772 G. Killingworth Paradise Regained 16 The time which their prophecy will continue..is a time, times, and an half time, or 1200 days.
1839 Brit. Mag. & Monthly Reg. Dec. 601 His computation of the times and half-time.
1998 L. L. Thompson Abingdon New Test. Comm.: Revelation (2014) (xi. 2) 125 Forty-two months or 1,260 days or three and a half years..occur several times in Revelation; so, the time of Jerusalem's defilement (11:2)..= the time, two times, and a half time (Dan 7:25).
2. Music. Half of a previously established time, or of the expected time (in various specific senses of time n. 26); (now usually) a rhythm that is half as fast as an earlier one; (Jazz) an apparent halving of the speed of a passage produced by doubling the prevailing note value, while the beat and harmonic rhythm remain unchanged. Also in extended use in dance.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > duration of notes > tempo > [noun] > specific tempo
quadruplaa1450
measure time1626
quick time1712
tempo giusto1724
tempo rubato1724
tittuping1780
rubato1855
double time1877
strict tempo1936
half-time1938
tranquillo1980
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke i. 27 The first must serue you in your first singing till you come to this signe :||: where you must begin againe and sing by the retort in halfe tyme (that is, as rounde againe, as you did before) till you come againe to the same signe.
1706 J. Weaver tr. R. A. Feuillet Orchesography 50 For a Time, half Time, or quarter Time, &c. they [sc. the rests] may be mark'd in the same manner as they are in Musick.
1890 Cassell's Family Mag. July 473/2 It is the same person who always persists in playing very slowly—about half time—all the symphonies in a song.
1890 R. G. Greene Internat. Cyclopedia X. 327 There is another form of common time besides that already noticed, which is called half-time, has a minim and two crotchets in the measure, and is known by the signature 2/4.
1938 D. Baker Young Man with Horn iv. iv. 266 They went into half-time together for a short coda.
2002 Notes 58 611/1 Sandke finds the salient features of Beiderbecke's style to be the use of..triplets, half time, double time, irregular rhythms, and utilization of the half valve.
3. † b. U.S. The right, granted to a university student, to count a year of employment as a schoolteacher as equivalent to six months of study towards a degree. Obsolete. rare.
a. Half the total number of hours normally allotted to daily or weekly work, study, etc.; the fact or condition of working, studying, etc., for half the customary full number of hours.
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society > occupation and work > work > times or periods of work > [noun] > full- or part-time
full time1821
short time1848
half-time1861
part-work1917
1824 Republican 16 Apr. 510 They [sc. children] shall be permitted to commence this half time at any period after they shall have completed their ninth year.
1825 Times 13 Sept. The cotton-spinners..placed their men on one-third and half time.
1861 Weekly Times 13 Oct. Notices of cotton-mills being put upon half-time.
1935 N.Y. Times 9 Feb. 10/5 A plan..through which 600 city engineers, faced with loss of their positions, may be kept at work on half time.
1958 J. Kesson White Bird Passes (1992) ii. 17 They're saying you're all being put on half-time at the mill.
2015 A. Donald et al. Hands-on Guide to Found. Programme (ed. 5) xvii. 232/1 The corollary of doing half-time is that you end up taking more time to complete your training.
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1860 O. W. Holmes in Atlantic Monthly Jan. 97/2 It is customary to allow half-time to students engaged in school-keeping,—that is, to count a year, so employed,..as equal to six months of the three years.
4.
a. The time at which the first half of an activity or performance is completed; the interval between the two halves of an activity or performance.
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1856 Leeds Times 18 Oct. 6/1 He..always makes a great noise on entering a theatre, which is generally at half-time.
1907 Science 25 Oct. 553/2 It was evident that at about half-time the nets had encountered a remarkable swarm of organisms.
1957 Illustr. London News 27 July 166/3 A performance of ‘King Henry the Fourth, Part One’..had to be abandoned at half-time in a steady drench of rain.
2008 New Yorker 21 Jan. 26/1 The cross-party hugfest at halftime of the back-to-back Republican and Democratic debates.
b. Sport. The time at which the first half of a game is complete, typically marked by an interval after which the two teams change ends on the pitch or court; the interval between the two halves of a game.
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society > leisure > sport > match or competition > [noun] > game or definite spell of play > end of
time1840
full time1871
half-time1871
quarter time1894
1865 Bell's Life in London 4 Mar. 9/6 When half time was called no goal having been obtained ends were changed.
1894 Times 23 Feb. 4/2 Before half-time he kicked two goals out of the three registered for Middlesex.
1933 Manch. Guardian 10 Apr. 3 Stewart got two painful hacks on the legs and did not resume after half-time.
1988 Touchdown Nov. 8/2 Quarterback Chris Miller's one-yard touchdown sneak came on the stroke of half time.
2015 Sunday Sun (Nexis) 21 June 87 He came off at half-time during England's post-Euro 2012 friendly against Italy in Berne.
5. Half the speed of the thing specified or implied; half the usual pace or speed.Recorded slightly earlier with reference to musical rhythm; cf. quot. 18901 at sense A. 2.With quot. 1904 cf. half-time shaft n. at Compounds 2.
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1904 A. B. F. Young Compl. Motorist iv. 118 All six valves are interchangeable and mechanically operated by rods worked from a cam shaft which is geared at half-time from the crank-axle.
1917 E. J. Canright Let. 14 Dec. in Wisconsin Mag. Hist. (1921) 5 176 The entire regiment marched at half time behind the gun carriage.
2013 A. Clark Vampire Diaries Salvation: Unseen xi. 103 She punched straight at Elena's chest, moving in half time.
6. The time in which the quantity of a specified substance in a sample, tissue, etc., or the number of specified objects in a population decreases by half (cf. half-life n. 2); the time required for a process to be 50 per cent complete.
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the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactive isotope > radioactive nuclide > [noun] > average duration > time of decrease
the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > material > [noun] > sample > half-life of
half-time1940
half-life1942
1908 Proc. Royal Soc. 1907–8 A. 80 597 The half-time period found [for the decay of radium emanation dissolved in water] was 3.8 days.
1940 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 62 1020/2 The half time necessary for oxygen exchange is about 1000 seconds.
1968 H. M. Lenhoff in M. Florkin & B. T. Scheer Chem. Zool. II. ii. iii. 165 The dissociation of calcium, as measured by the decrease in the animal's ability to respond to glutathione, followed first-order kinetics, with a half-time varying from 2 to 30 minutes, depending upon pH.
1992 M. J. Auger & J. A. Ross in C. E. Lewis & J. O'D. McGee Macrophage i. 4 Studies in mice have shown that monocytes have a half-time in the circulation of 17.4 h under normal circumstances.., giving an average transit time in the circulation of 25 h.
2010 D. K. Graver Scuba Diving (ed. 4) 50 A tissue is saturated (holds all the gas it can at a given pressure) after six half-times.
2014 H. Eggenkamp Geochem. Stable Chlorine & Bromine Isotopes viii. 97/1 The reaction was heterogeneously catalysed by the walls of Pyrex vessels with an exchange half time of 3 min.
B. adv.
For half the customary full number of working hours; (more generally) so as to make use of or take up half of the time available. Cf. full time adv., part-time adv.
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1825 Scotsman 22 June 395/2 A considerable number of the master spinners..have given their hands notice of their intention to work only half time.
1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. viii. §72 Factories are worked half-time, or close entirely.
1876 Brit. Architect 27 Oct. 265/1 111 attended school morning and evening, eighty-two attended half time, [etc.].
1921 E. Hemingway Let. 15 Feb. (2011) I. 269 He works half time.
1982 Financial Times 16 June 12/5 Two people aged over 60 could be employed half-time in some jobs in place of one person full-time.
2015 State Jrnl.-Reg. (Springfield, Illinois) (Nexis) 30 Oct. 1 The problem is you can't be open half-time.
C. adj.
1. Of work, a job, etc.: occupying only half of the usual working day or week; (also) engaged in or relating to work of this kind. Cf. full time adj. 1, part-time adj.
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the world > time > [adjective] > part-time
part-time1856
1826 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 863/2 The diminution of imports, and half-time working of the manufacturers, would soon have brought down supply to the proper amount, raised prices, and restored consumption.
1881 Work & Leisure Nov. 339 Half-time work would be far less likely than full work to be interrupted by illness.
1939 A. Macleish Let. 15 May (1983) 300 I decided instead to go to Harvard on a half-time job.
1997 Globe & Mail (Canada) (Nexis) 15 July a1 She has two temporary, half-time contracts doing statistical analysis and data-base management at Dalhousie [University].
2020 Milford Mercury (Nexis) 3 June The charity now has one full time employee and one half time worker as well as numerous volunteers.
2. Of or relating to a system by which children are employed in a factory, mill, etc., for half the customary full number of working hours, and attend school for the remaining part of the day. Cf. half-timer n. 1, half-time system n. Now historical.Part-time schooling was first made a condition of the employment of children aged between 9 and 12 in the British textile industries by the Factory Act of 1833, and this was later extended to other industries. The practice was ended by the Education Act of 1918, which required full-time education for all children up to the age of 14.
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1839 Factories Act: Rep. Inspectors Educ. Provisions 15 in Parl. Papers (H.C. 42) XLII. 353 It might be suggested, for every factory to institute an infants' school at or near the premises..and the same teacher would do to educate the half-time children.
1860 Morning Post 20 Mar. 5/4 The children employed would come to the half-time school far better prepared to benefit by their attendance.
1887 Educational Dept. Circular No. 271. 7 Apr. A separate half-time register will be kept of all half-time scholars.
2008 R. Scott in T. Livingstone Tommy's War 128/1 The Glasgow School Board..set high standards by..eliminating half-time education—which allowed children under 13 to spend half their time in school and the other half working.
Compounds
C1.
a. General use as a modifier (in sense A. 4), as in half-time interval, half-time lead, half-time score, half-time whistle, etc.
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1858 York Herald 16 Oct. 5/6 If such parties cannot stay the whole time they had much better..leave during the half time interval.
1882 Notts. Guardian Suppl. 3 Mar. 4/2 After the half-time interval, the match became still more exciting.
1928 Manch. Guardian 9 Aug. 4/4 Water polo... The half-time score was 2–0 in favour of Hungary, and the full time score 2–2.
1956 Manch. Guardian 27 Feb. 8/2 Farm dived to save it and keep Blackpool a half-time lead.
1995 Observer (Nexis) 20 Aug. 5 The local flea pit..with usherettes selling half-time ice creams.
2017 C. McQueer Hings 150 The half-time whistle blew.
b. spec. Originally and chiefly U.S. As a modifier in sense A. 4b, with the sense ‘designating live entertainment or performances staged at half-time at certain (esp. major) sporting events; of or relating to such entertainment’, as in half-time entertainment, half-time performer, half-time show, etc.
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1938 Washington Post 17 Dec. 19/8 Half-time entertainment was provided by Leon Brusiloff and the student band.
1950 N.Y. Times 7 Oct. 14/7 A steady drizzle throughout the game washed out the half-time show.
2004 Associated Press Online (Nexis) 1 Feb. I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance of the Super Bowl.
2015 Hoosier Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 1 Feb. (Herald-Times ed.) a5/6 Various betting websites offer odds on such questions as..the color of halftime performer Katy Perry's hair.
C2. † half-time survey n. Nautical Obsolete a survey of a vessel conducted when half the period for which it was originally assigned a particular class has elapsed; cf. class n. 3b(b).
half-time shaft n. (in a four-stroke internal combustion engine) a camshaft which is driven at half the speed of the crankshaft so as to open valves once in each cycle; = half-speed shaft n.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > machines which impart power > engine > internal-combustion engine > [noun] > parts of > cam-shafts
overhead camshaft1912
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > parts and equipment of motor vehicles > [noun] > transmission > shaft and joints transmitting drive > drive-shafts, etc.
driveshaft1860
half-time shaft1861
propshaft1929
1902 Motor World 12 June 321/2 (caption) Half-time shaft.
1951 C. M. Hepworth Came the Dawn xvi. 166 The poor little thing [sc. the engine], ashamed of the horrid behaviour of her silencer, had snapped her half-time shaft in two and brought her own career to an end.
2002 Cycle World Jan. 98/2 A toothed belt drives a half-time shaft in the cylinder Vee, and other toothed belts carry the drive from this shaft to the cams.
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the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > investigation, inspection > inspection, survey > [noun] > maintenance of standards
wraking1599
quality control1917
1867 Leeds Mercury 29 June 7/4 The existing half-time survey being sufficiently strict and effective for the discovery of any material defect in the ship.
1920 Times 7 Feb. 4/2 The defendants said that the half-time survey of the yacht had only been completed on June 21.
half-time system n. now historical a system by which children are employed in a factory, mill, etc., for half the customary full number of working hours, and attend school for the remaining part of the day.Part-time schooling was first made a condition of the employment of children aged between 9 and 12 in the British textile industries by the Factory Act of 1833, and this was later extended to other industries. The practice was ended by the Education Act of 1918, which required full-time education for all children up to the age of 14.
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society > education > [noun] > systematic education > systems of
university extension1839
Philanthropinism1842
Arnoldismc1845
co-education1852
Pestalozzianism1859
kindergartenism1872
secularism1872
community education1873
Froebelism1879
co-ed1886
extramuralism1892
vocationalism1901
heurism1909
sandwich1913
Montessori1917
Montessorianism1917
Juku system1931
polytechnization1932
day release1936
essentialism1939
comprehensivization1958
multitracking1989
1843 Rep. Inspectors Factories to Home Dept.: June 29 in Parl. Papers XXVII. 335 The advantages to be gained by the half time system are..it will afford increased security against the overworking of children, and the complicated system of changing the younger hands during the hours of work will be altogether avoided.
1861 Illustr. London News 13 Apr. 353/3 The extending the half-time system.
1999 T. May Victorian Schoolroom 29/1 In 1844 children working in mills were obliged to spend three whole days or six half days in school, thus commencing what was known as the ‘half-time’ system.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2022).
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n.adv.adj.1536