Idiom
buy time
Meaning
To purposefully cause a delay, in order to achieve something else.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I need to buy time to finish my work.”
“The manager asked for a meeting to buy time while the team finished the report.”
“By offering a minor concession during the negotiations, the diplomat hoped to buy time for his government to reach a more favorable agreement.”
Examples
simple
“I need to buy time to finish my work.”
contextual
“The manager asked for a meeting to buy time while the team finished the report.”
complex
“By offering a minor concession during the negotiations, the diplomat hoped to buy time for his government to reach a more favorable agreement.”
Key words
Related idioms
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