clocklike

[klok-lahyk]

adjective

1. highly systematic, precise, and dependable.

   The mail carrier arrives at noon with clocklike regularity.

Word History and Origins

Origin of clocklike¹

First recorded in 1735–45; clock ¹ + -like

Example Sentences

Stroll into the dining room and at first you may see a blank canvas, only soon its walls and tables awaken to place you underwater, in nature or surrounded by a scalding hot warehouse where lava flows over clocklike gears.

From Los Angeles Times

Jennifer Noda’s ominous clocklike metal device includes two jagged wooden pieces as hands, while Lisa Rosenstein reclaims a more insidious material, hand-knotting a shroud of clear plastic shreds to luminous effect.

From Washington Post

Like many hipsters and countless musicians of the late 1950s, he favored Cuban-collared shirts, wide-legged, pleated trousers, slip-on loafers and blouson jackets — a style that men’s wear labels like Prada revisit with clocklike regularity.

From New York Times

The slowly turning clocklike wheel suggests the toll it takes, slowly grinding our world into atoms.

From Washington Post

To detect the spiraling pairs, observers train large radio telescopes on dozens of pulsars—collapsed stars emitting radio beams that, as the pulsar spins, appear as pulses with clocklike regularity.

From Science Magazine

Related Words

• accurate 
• actual 
• clear-cut 
• correct 
• decisive 
• definite 
• exact 
• explicit 
• literal 
• narrow 
• particular 
• proper 
• rigid 
• rigorous 
• specific 
• strict