time suck

noun

variants or time-suck
plural time sucks or time-sucks
informal : an activity to which one devotes a lot of time that might be better or more productively spent doing other things
Yes, it's no secret that Twitter can be a tremendous time-suck. But imagine getting paid for wasting those precious minutes of your day.Sean Gregory
The electronic plate would update automatically to show your current registration. This is mildly convenient for regular folks but super convenient for fleets. Gingerly applying stickers to dozens of cars seems like it would be a real time-suck.Kyle Hyatt
Adversity can inspire great art, but it can also be a time suck. For more than twenty years, Matthew Covey has been helping musicians and other artists deal with government paperwork.Betsy Morais

Examples of time suck in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Preparing for these trials and dealing with the civil lawsuits against him, it's been a gigantic time suck for him. Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 5 Mar. 2024 One standout is, of course, Chocobo Racing, which makes its return as the single most addictive time suck from the OG game there is. Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 22 Feb. 2024 The changes came after employees criticized the previous review system for being a time suck. Paige McGlauflin, Fortune, 28 Mar. 2023 Beyond the time suck of dating, without a partner though, there’s no one to help with all those everyday tasks. Bymegan Leonhardt, Fortune, 13 Feb. 2023 Now, Instagram has announced some features that may make the site less of a time suck. WIRED, 21 Jan. 2023 Taking three days to record a Christmas tune, even at Jimi Hendrix’s legendary Electric Ladyland studio, seemed like an unnecessary time suck. cleveland, 23 Dec. 2022 Hair can be a handful, a time suck, a money pit, a drag. Sandra E. Garcia, New York Times, 9 Aug. 2022 The final piece of the initiative focuses on security alarms, which are currently a huge time suck for officers because many are set off accidentally or in error, triggering an automatic officer response. Lea Skene, Baltimore Sun, 18 May 2022

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

Word History

First Known Use

1991, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of time suck was in 1991

Dictionary Entries Near time suck

Cite this Entry

“Time suck.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/time%20suck. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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