time vampire

plural time vampires

1. derogatoryinformalA person, obligation, or activity that drains one's time; a time-waster.

   TV is the biggest time vampire in our culture.

   2001, Ted Broer, Maximum Fat Loss

   5 more examples

   The telephone is to time vampires what blood banks are to real vampires.

   1994, Davida Jean Weinberg, Reciprocity Reconsidered, page 287

   Believe it or not, a "gentle clue" to a time vampire is the equivalent of a two-by-four over the head for most people.

   2004, Shaun Belding, Winning with the Customer from Hell, page 184

   The night is a time-vampire as far as taking care of your skin goes.

   2005, Judy Steinberg, Raechel Donahue, The Ropes: Girls Have the Rules, Women Know the Ropes, page 159

   That any systematic critique of the capitalist employer as time vampire is thereby short-circuited is plain.

   2013, T. Ferguson, Victorian Time: Technologies, Standardizations, Catastrophes, page 24

   Yes, the apps on your computer and phone are the biggest time vampires of all time.

   2020, Brent Spencer, A Handbook for the Online Student: Learning in Difficult Times

2. literatureA variety of vampire that feeds off time or potential years of life.

   Do you mean that Jarmyn Thanatos is some kind of a— a time vampire?

   1997, Brad Strickland, John Bellairs, The Bell, the Book and the Spellbinder

   2 more examples

   “I'm a time vampire,” Loretta Vampireclanso-called-jiangshi said. “I can take time from people, or give it away.”

   2017, Emily Martha Sorensen, Trials of a Teenage Werevulture

   But I was laying low, and vampires can't always be choosers, even time vampires.

   2023, Eileen Merriman, Time's Raven