time travel

1 of 2

noun

: the hypothetical practice of traveling into the past or future (as by using a time machine or magic)

Time travel is a popular device in fantasy novels. Sometimes people return to yesteryear to meet their ancestors or famous personages or just to see a physical setting in some earlier form. And their journey into the past may vary from an act as simple as walking through a door to the conjuring up of a mystic force with a magic talisman.

—Stephen Krensky

—often used before another noun

time travel fiction/movies

Thankfully, the film doesn't take its time travel mechanics too seriously …

—Sawyer Hill

time travel

2 of 2

verb

variants or time-travel

ˈtīm-ˌtra-vəl 

time traveled or time-traveled also time travelled or time-travelled; time traveling or time-traveling also time travelling or time-travelling; time travels or time-travels

intransitive verb

: to travel into the past or future (as in a fictional story) : to engage in time travel

… the musical imagines that Betty Boop, an actress in films of the 1920s, time travels to present-day Manhattan …

—Michael Paulson

—sometimes used figuratively

… her thoughts time-traveled to the … music scene of 1970s London, when she was in her early 20s …

—Mark Pothier

time traveler noun

or time traveller

plural time travelers or time travellers

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1914, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1937, in the meaning defined above