garbage time

noun

US, sports

: the final moments or minutes of a game in which one side has an insurmountable lead, substitutes often enter the game in place of starting players, and scoring is typically easier because of looser defensive play

… the forgotten foursome of Greg Kite, Fred Roberts, Sam Vicent and Conner Henry will be on call in case of extreme emergency and those meaningless minutes appropriately referred to as garbage time.—

Gerry Finn

One touchdown was all the Broncos' D allowed, and that came in garbage time.—

Paul Zimmerman

Examples of garbage time in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web After that, the rest of the inspection is pretty much garbage time (literally), but there were also live roaches walking solo under a kitchen wok, in front of a walk-in freezer, on racks next to the back door and on a wall above the three-compartment sink. —

David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 4 July 2024 Relievers Chase Anderson — B: Anderson isn’t expected to pitch in high leverage spots, but there’s value in eating innings during garbage time, and he’s done that job well. —

Mac Cerullo, Hartford Courant, 30 June 2024 If Robinson were to sustain another injury, the Knicks would be left with only Sims, who only saw playoff minutes in garbage time in Round 2 against the Pacers. —

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 26 June 2024 Payton Pritchard touched the ball exactly once before garbage time yet hit one of the most important shots of the night: a miraculous halfcourt prayer as time expired in the first half. —

Zack Cox, Orlando Sentinel, 18 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for garbage time

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'garbage time.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.