time lag

time lag (plural time lags)

1. A period of time between one event and another; a delay.
   • 1959 December, “New TPOs for the Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 581:

     The communicating doors of adjoining vehicles are opened simultaneously by pressing a large push-button located a suitable height for a man loaded with mailbags to contact it with his shoulder; after a time-lag of seven seconds the doors close automatically.

• “lag, time lag.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.