HIGH TIME

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does high time mean? 

• HIGH TIME (noun)
  The noun HIGH TIME has 1 sense:

1. the latest possible moment

  Familiarity information: HIGH TIME used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HIGH TIME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The latest possible moment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

it is high time you went to work

Hypernyms ("high time" is a kind of...):

time (a suitable moment)

 Context examples 

Looking at my watch, I saw that it was half-past two o'clock, and high time, therefore, that I started upon my homeward journey.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yes, it's high time he went, for he is ready, and as soon as he is off, I shall turn soldier.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with thirst.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

However, I once caught a young male of three years old, and endeavoured, by all marks of tenderness, to make it quiet; but the little imp fell a squalling, and scratching, and biting with such violence, that I was forced to let it go; and it was high time, for a whole troop of old ones came about us at the noise, but finding the cub was safe (for away it ran), and my sorrel nag being by, they durst not venture near us.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

So I got grandpa to say it was high time we did something, and off I pelted to the office yesterday, for the doctor looked sober, and Hannah most took my head off when I proposed a telegram.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)