temporicide

T1E1M3P3O1R1I1C3I1D2E1

noun

The act of killing time.

Scrabble 18

Meanings

nountemporicide (countable and uncountable, plural temporicides)

plural temporicides

  1. countableuncountableThe act of killing time.

    D., who would catch the tide, G., with his notions wide, Each is temporicide — Time's reckless murderer:

    1880, Edward James Mortimer Collins, Edmund Hodgson Yates, Thoughts in my garden
    3 more examples

    Fancy Isaac Newton, with the confused elements of a 'Principia' circulating in his brain, constrained to write installation odes or opera criticisms for the 'Morning Post;' or fancy, if you will, some impetuous rhinoceros set to draw water from the well at Carisbrook Castle, in the place of the celebrated donkey so long accustomed to it; and you will have some notion of Fichte's tragical labour of writing tragedies and short romantic stories, adaptable for purposes of temporicide.

    1851, Chambers W. and R., ltd, Chambers's papers for the people, page 9

    In the "Illustrated London News" for February, 1855, and again in the "Art Journal" for March, 1857, there are drawings by Mr. Glaisher, of the Greenwich Observatory, of no less than thirty-two varieties discovered in his own neighborhood, and doubtless many more may be found, and in any part of the country, if diligently sought, providing a Christmas and New-year's pleasure for the intelligent such as will outweigh whole nights of the mere temporicide popularly esteemed the beau-idéal of winter pastime.

    1866, Leo Hartley Grindon, Life: Its Nature, Varieties, and Phenomena, page 435

    To become truly sovereign, Macbeth recognizes from the very beginning that it is not enough to merely commit regicide, he must also perform a kind of temporicide: an act of time killing.

    2019, Arthur Bradley, Unbearable Life: A Genealogy of Political Erasure

Origin

  1. Latintemporis“time”
  2. Englishtemporicide

From Latin temporis (“time”) + -icide.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

temporicide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/temporicide

MLA

“temporicide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/temporicide. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “temporicide,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/temporicide.

Source: temporicide on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.