lose time

lose time (third-person singular simple present loses time, present participle losing time, simple past and past participle lost time)

1. (of a clock) to go slow and not keep accurate time.
2. (of a person etc.) to fall behind schedule.
   • 1925, DH Lawrence, "The Willful Woman", in St. Mawr and Other Stories, page 1

     On the third day the train lost time more and more. She raged with painful impatience. No good, at every station the train sat longer.

   • 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, pages 131/132:

     There are the engines that develop ill-health and begin to lose time, or the wagons that develop hot boxes and have to be removed, initiating delays that steadily pile up—or at worst, the weather lays its hand on the whole District.

• keep time

• melitose, mesolite, misletoe