“Against the clock” is an idiom used when someone is racing to complete a task within a deadline, often in high-stress environments like business or sports. It originated from “race against time” in the sports world. English has many time-related idioms, with over 3,500 in use, making it difficult for non-native speakers to understand. Some idioms, like “against the clock,” can be guessed, while others require experience in the culture.
“Against the clock” is a common expression or idiom in the English language that is generally used when someone feels they don’t have enough time to complete a task within a deadline and are, in fact, racing against the clock to complete it. It is an expression that is often used in business environments where high-volume, high-stress conditions exist. Places where racing against the clock to complete a task would likely be routine include newspapers where stories must be completed within deadlines and stock market trading floors where trades are affected by volatility and the closing bell of a trading day. Sports environments are another key area where there is often a literal race against the clock to score when a team is trailing by points with only minutes or seconds left in the game.
The origin of a saying like “against the clock” is often unclear. This particular watch idiom is one of many related to watches and appears to have originated as an abbreviation of the phrase “race against time,” which developed in the mid-1900s in the sports world. It has most often been used to refer to running athletes, such as in marathons and track and field events, where performance is timed down to the split-second level. Other clock-related idioms that are popular and refer to rapidly approaching deadlines include running tasks at the last minute, last second, or last hour. Completing a task in the “eleventh hour” or “just under the wire” are also idioms associated with rapidly approaching deadlines.
The English language has many idioms related to time. Since the meaning of the words that make up an idiom can vary according to the culture in which it is used, it is often necessary to get an interpretation of what it means. Assumptions based on a suspect meaning can sometimes lead to mistranslation or misunderstanding. Common English-language idioms relating to time that could be easily misunderstood include phrases like “better late than never,” “a day late and a dollar short,” and “in the blink of an eye.” Most English idioms can be traced back to Western society by a century or more, and often have different modern meanings today than they originally had when they first appeared.
Over 3,500 idioms are routinely incorporated into the contemporary English spoken language and often make it difficult for people learning English as a second language to understand the meaning being conveyed. The purpose of some idioms, such as “against the clock,” can be guessed with relative ease, but others are nearly impossible to figure out the meaning without experience in the specific culture where the language is spoken. There may even be variations to the meaning within the same country or culture. Idioms that may cause non-native English speakers to scratch their heads in puzzlement include examples such as “milk run,” “cog in the machine,” and “I’m going to be a monkey’s uncle.” Even native English speakers often forget the meaning of such sentences, even though they may use them while speaking without realizing it.
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