WHEN THE TIME COMES

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does when the time comes mean? 

• WHEN THE TIME COMES (adverb)
  The adverb WHEN THE TIME COMES has 1 sense:

1. at the appropriate time

  Familiarity information: WHEN THE TIME COMES used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHEN THE TIME COMES (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

At the appropriate time

Synonyms:

in due course; in due season; in due time; in good time; when the time comes

Context example:

we'll get to this question in due course

 Context examples 

But by deciding what end-of-life care best suits your needs when you are healthy, you can help those close to you make the right choices when the time comes.

(End of Life Issues, NIH)

He will speak plainly enough when the time comes, be sure.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"It's no use! Do the best you can when the time comes, and if the audience laughs, don't blame me. Come on, Meg."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It made a great impression on me, and I remembered it a long time afterwards; as I shall have occasion to narrate when the time comes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“It's us must break the treaty when the time comes; and till then I'll gammon that doctor, if I have to ile his boots with brandy.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

When the time comes I will describe that wondrous moonlit night upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus—a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixed upon the top of his head—was entangled in an Indian net, and nearly upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same night that a green water-snake shot out from the rushes and carried off in its coils the steersman of Challenger's canoe.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Wait is what I say; but when the time comes, why, let her rip!

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And when the time comes—may it come soon, if it be His merciful pleasure!—when my death shall release her from constraint, I shall close my eyes upon her honoured face, with unbounded confidence and love; and leave her, with no sorrow then, to happier and brighter days.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He stopped and looked at me, and said:—My friend John, when the corn is grown, even before it has ripened—while the milk of its mother-earth is in him, and the sunshine has not yet begun to paint him with his gold, the husbandman he pull the ear and rub him between his rough hands, and blow away the green chaff, and say to you: 'Look! he's good corn; he will make good crop when the time comes.'

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)