clock is ticking
Deadline approaches fast
Time is running out.
The phrase evokes a countdown—opportunities narrowing, deadlines approaching, consequences looming: The clock is ticking on the cease-fire negotiations.
Often applied to women's fertility as they age: She feels the clock ticking.
The image suggests urgency and the impossibility of stopping time's passage.
- countdownBackward enumeration to zero
- running out of timeInsufficient duration remaining
- crunch timeHigh-pressure final stretch
- time crunchInsufficient period remaining
- pressureForce upon contact
time pressure · deadline · stress · timer · stopwatch · eleventh hour · zero hour · last minute · do or die · now or never · anxiety · priority · anticipation · ultimatum · fleeting · urgency · borrowed time · hourglass
- time pressurerush, rushed, urgency, no time to lose, deadline
- time sayingstime flies, time is money, time heals all wounds, time will tell, carpe diem
- game showsbuzzer, buzzers, contestant, contestants, jackpot
clock is tickingno rush
No urgency here
take your time · no hurry · no pressure · open-ended · at your leisure
clock is tickingtime to burn
Abundant unoccupied hours
breathing room · all day · indefinite · timeless · eternal
clock is tickingleisurely
Done without urgency
unhurried · slow and steady · methodical · deliberate · measured
clock, clocks, clocked, clocking, clockwork, clockwise, tick, ticks, ticked