timer
[tahy-mer]
- a person or thing that times.
- a person who measures or records time.
- a device for indicating or measuring elapsed time, as a stopwatch.
- a device for controlling machinery, appliances, or the like, in a specified way at a predetermined time: Please put the roast in the oven and set the timer to cook it for two hours.
- (in an internal-combustion engine) a set of points actuated by a cam, which causes the spark for igniting the charge at the instant required.
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Origin of timer
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
timepiecewristwatchalarmtimerchronometerstopwatchtickerclockhourglassmetronometattlerwatchchronographtimekeeperpendulumturnipsundialExamples from the Web for timer
Contemporary Examples
It also has a rechargeable battery and a timer, so you can leave it to set to work and return to a good-as-new grill later.
Another technique that utilizes the timer is the Tabata protocol.
I set the timer on my iPhone so that it goes off when I need to stop writing and attend to something else.
But in the end, after the timer buzzed, she assured us it was all “for our children.”
15 Hilarious Pageant MomentsJune 18, 2013
Cheaper models are just an electric heating element and a timer, at which point, you might as well just go back to the stovetop.
Historical Examples
I suppose the rascally spy isn't still in this clump of timer, eh?
The Dare Boys of 1776Stephen Angus Cox
It was two hours before I located the same, which was caused by the timer.
The Prairie MotherArthur Stringer
He jimmied the timer on the rocket motor so it would fire to the last drop.
Far from HomeJ.A. Taylor
Two lights crossed the lenses of her eyes, but no timer could have caught them.
Sunlight PatchCredo Fitch Harris
And have a man from the garage with extra tires and a timer for the carburetor.
Eve to the RescueEthel Hueston
timer
- a device for measuring, recording, or indicating time
- a switch or regulator that causes a mechanism to operate at a specific time or at predetermined intervals
- a person or thing that times
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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