Meanings
plural between-times · alternative between time
- The period or time between two events; interim; meantime; meanwhile.
It relates to a recurrence in the dead time or the between-time separating inspiration and expiration, the diastole and systole of the heart beating softly against the lining of one's own skin.
1996, Emmanuel Lévinas, Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak, Simon Critchley, Emmanuel Lévinas4 more examples
Sade therefore calls the pure time of suspended history marking an epoch a revolutionary regime; it is the time of the between-times where, between the old laws and the new, there reigns the silence of the absence of laws, an interval that corresponds precisely to the suspension of speech […]
1993, Maurice Blanchot, The Infinite ConversationIn the case of the time of the event, by contrast, It is no longer time which is between two instants; it is the event which is a between-time [entre-temps, "meanwhile, meantime"]: the between-time is not of the eternal, but it is no longer (of) time, it is (of) becoming.
1994, Ronald Bogue, Mihai Spariosu, The Play of the SelfFreedom itself ages; it is not eternal, though perhaps it brings us to a border between time and eternity. Ethical selving is in the between time, the interim of the aging of freedom. Freedom, of course, seems the catch cry of modernity.
2001, William Desmond, Ethics and the BetweenTurning to the between regressions, the elasticity on fixed capital is particularly high (0.63) in the between-time […] The between-time estimate of capital of agricultural origin is significantly positive, though more modest in value (0.25).
2012, Keith O. Fuglie, V. Eldon Ball, Sun Ling Wang, Productivity Growth in AgricultureSynonyms: interim
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe period or time between two events; interim; meantime; meanwhile.
Origin
Cite this entry
between-time. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/between-time
“between-time.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/between-time. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “between-time,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/between-time.
Source: between-time on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.