timer (timer)

1. One who keeps or measures and records time; a timekeeper. To make a record in this country requires the presence of three timers or measurers, and two of these must agree, or the intermediate one of the three be taken as the correct one. The Century , XL. 205. 2. A form of stop-watch for recording or ind i cating short intervals of time. It shows not actual time, but only relative time, as the time between the beginning and the end of a race, of a trial of speed, etc. time roust, timer so met, a. See timorous, tim or some. time-sense (tim's ens), n. The sense or perception of time and time-relations. All psycho physic experiments, especially those requiring comparison and those upon the time -sense and the like, involve memory. W. H. Burnham, Amer. Jour. Psychol., II. 603. time-server (tim'sėr"ver), n. One who acts conformably to times and seasons: now generally applied to one who meanly and for selfish ends adapts his opinions and manners to the times; one who panders to the ruling power. No government has ever been, or ever can be, wherein timeservers and blockheads will not be uppermost. Dryden, Third Miscellany, Ded. =Syn. See definitions of temporizer and trimmer . time-serving (tim's erving), n. An acting conformably to times and seasons; now, usually, an obsequious compliance with the humors of men in power, which implies a surrender of one's independence, and sometimes of one's integrity. By impudence and time - serving let them climb up to advancement in despite of virtue. Burton , Anat. of Mel., p. 375. Trimming and time -serving are but two words for the same thing. South . .. Poor is the triumph o'er the timid hare. Thomson, Autumn, 1. 401. A timid creature, lax of knee and hip, Whom small disturbance whitens round the lip. O. W. Holmes , The Moral Bully. = It.