timer
Americannoun
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timers
plural
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a person or thing that times.
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a person who measures or records time.
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a device for indicating or measuring elapsed time, as a stopwatch.
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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.
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(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.
noun
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a device for measuring, recording, or indicating time
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a switch or regulator that causes a mechanism to operate at a specific time or at predetermined intervals
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a person or thing that times
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of timer
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A timer on a fake checkout site can add pressure as the scammer tries to rush you and keep you from checking the site too closely.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
But there’s nothing like listening to your tiny baby screaming on the other side of the door while waiting for a timer to go off so you can go comfort them.
From Slate ● May 3, 2026
"I started doing it on my granny's kitchen floor and begged my mum for a timer mat and cup," Ivy said.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026
He found that ratios in the middle of their historical distribution conveyed little information of value to a market timer; only extremely high or extremely low readings were worth following.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026
The timer above the Morph power-up continues to count down.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
The cooking part was over, the timers went off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Critics say the app’s countdown timers, amped-up chat feeds and other elements encourage impulse overspending.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
It might not strike you as particularly surprising that the market timers so quickly ran for the exits in the face of the market’s drop.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026
Contrarians will be looking to see if, yet again, the market timers spend no more than a few days in that zone and then retreat.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
I guess a lot of them were on automatic timers.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
