as in winters
a period of often involuntary inactivity or idleness
we need to take a time-out from our relationship to think things over
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of time-outs
Run opposing guards into the ground, step on the gas harder, and force your opponents into spending catch-your-breath time-outs.
—
Brian Robin, Oc Register, 28 Jan. 2026
What all those albums had in common was how those artists offered at least occasional time-outs from the trauma.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 26 Oct. 2025
Brian Robin, Oc Register, 28 Jan. 2026
What all those albums had in common was how those artists offered at least occasional time-outs from the trauma.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 26 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for time-outs
Noun
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If your area experiences cold winters, bring them indoors in autumn, either emptied of their annuals, cleaned and stored, or still housing tropicals, evergreens or herbs, and treat them as houseplants over winter.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
7 Apr. 2026
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In wet winters, the valleys beyond town awaken in color as sand verbena, desert sunflower, evening primrose and pincushion gather in brief, luminous blooms across the desert floor.—
Josh Jackson,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Fueled on coffee and with breaks for lunch and dinner, the two men signed more than 15,000, maybe even upwards of 20,000 comics, in a span of four days under the watchful eyes of reps for a signing and grading company charged with handling the comics.—
Borys Kit,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Apr. 2026
-
Venture out beyond the square, and the small-town USA illusion breaks.—
Jessica Mathews,
Fortune,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Referring to the decline in permits approved, ECMC Director Julie Murphy said there were lulls as everyone adjusted course.—
Judith Kohler,
Denver Post,
18 Mar. 2026
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Acting in a movie involves a lot of waiting around, too—as the crew repositions cameras and adjusts the lighting, among other things—and those lulls provided me with plenty of time to feel queasy with anxiety.—
Naomi Fry,
New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
To travel just one meter, these fish require an average of 30 to 60 seconds of movement, along with eight to nine short pauses and nine one-hour rests on horizontal ledges along their route, according to Phys.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Apr. 2026
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The months of rehab, setbacks and pauses took their toll on the living legend.—
Joseph Dycus,
Mercury News,
5 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The layoffs come after the school’s board voted in March to consolidate its Lincoln high school program into the Roseville campus, which will send as many as 120 students 10 miles south to stay with the academy.—
Nicole Buss,
Sacbee.com,
3 Apr. 2026
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While more than 111 layoffs were initially planned in February, that number decreased as workers were transferred, the spokesperson said.—
Addison Wright,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The average response time for phone calls dropped to 6 minutes from 30 minutes in the prior fiscal year; field office wait times decreased to 23 minutes; and removal of online service downtimes has benefited an additional 125,000 users in a single week, according to the agency's findings.—
Suzanne Blake,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Experts attribute the interruptions to supply chain disruptions and a surge in demand, tied in part to panic buying.—
April 2,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
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The human costs of grant uncertainty While interruptions to grant funding slow scientific progress, there is an immediate real-world human cost to the upheaval.—
Nara Parameswaran,
The Conversation,
30 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Time-outs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/time-outs. Accessed 8 Apr. 2026.
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