time out of mind

plural times out of mind

1. idiomaticThe distant past beyond anyone's memory.

   Harvests at Boisveyrac had been gathered under arms since time out of mind, with sentries posted far up the shore.

   1904, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 10, in Fort Amity

   2 more examples

   But though this Kingdom of China doth often change its Lord and Name, the Chineſes however have time out of mind called it by two other particular names, as Chungchoa, and Chungque ; the firſt whereof ſignifies The Middle Kingdom ; and the other, the Middle Garden.

   1669, John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, →OCLC, pages 4–5

   And on the yew that has been green from the times out of mind By the Steep Place of the Strangers and the Gap of the Wind.

   1905, William Butler Yeats, “Red Hanrahan's Curse,”, in Stories of Red Hanrahan

2. idiomaticA lengthy duration of time, longer than is readily remembered.

   They were Episcopalians, and for time out of mind had rented a half-pew in the church of their denomination on California Street.

   1899, Frank Norris, chapter 1, in Blix

   Synonyms: time immemorial

alternative times out of mind

1. datedidiomaticFor a lengthy period of time; on numerous occasions.

   I tell you that Cashel never was beaten, although times out of mind it would have paid him better to lose than to win.

   1882, George Bernard Shaw, chapter 13, in Cashel Byron's Profession

   3 more examples

   Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut / Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, / Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.

   1599, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

   Our constitution is a prescriptive constitution; it is a constitution, whose sole authority is, that it has existed time out of mind.

   1782 May 7, Edmund Burke, Speech on a motion made in the House of Commons, the 7th of May 1782, for a committee to enquire into the state of the representation of the Commons in Parliament

   The very solicitors’ boys who have kept the wretched suitors at bay, by protesting time out of mind that Mr Chizzle, Mizzle, or otherwise was particularly engaged and had appointments until dinner, may have got an extra moral twist and shuffle into themselves out of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

   1853, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Bleak House