nick of time
The last moment
The nick of time is the last possible moment before it's too late.
Nick here means a precise point or notch—the exact instant something must happen.
The phrase almost always appears with "in the": The ambulance arrived in the nick of time.
It emphasizes how close disaster came to occurring.
- decisive momentPivotal juncture determining outcome
- last-minuteJust before deadline
- instantBriefest unit of time
- deadlineTime limit for completion
- rushQuick sudden movement
countdown · beat the clock · moment · hairbreadth · by a hair · skin of your teeth · buzzer beater · nail biter · emergency · luck · stroke of luck · second · narrow escape · close call · eleventh hour · photo finish · down to the wire · providence
- time wordsminute, hour, day, now, soon
- close callsclose call, near miss, narrow escape, close shave, skin of teeth
- time pressurerush, against the clock, rushed, clock is ticking, urgency
- time sayingscarpe diem, seize the day, better late than never, tempus fugit, haste makes waste
nick of timetoo late
Past the cutoff
after the fact · missed the boat · too little too late · behind schedule · overdue
nick of timeahead of schedule
Before the planned time
early · prematurely · ages ago · unhurried · leisurely