pressed for time

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

pressed for time

1. (idiomatic) in a hurry, without spare time.
   • 1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC:
     Episode 16

     So as neither of them were particularly pressed for time, as it happened, and the temperature refreshing since it cleared up after the recent visitation of Jupiter Pluvius, they dandered along past by where the empty vehicle was waiting without a fare or a jarvey

   • 1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London:

     He seemed to be pressed for time and I gathered that telephoning at all was rather risky.

   • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 October 2026:

     But as our urban lives have grown more pressed for time, we have diced our opportunity costs finer and finer; from budgeting days or slabs of hours, we have come to rationing minutes.