beat the clock

🌎Region: International 📊Difficulty Level:intermediate

💡Meaning

Finish something before a deadline or before time runs out.

🕰️Origin

From timed races and time-trial sports, where the goal is to finish before the clock reaches a set time; later generalized to any deadline-driven situation.

📝Notes

Often used for deadlines or timed tasks; implies urgency and success in finishing just in time. Neutral and common in everyday and business contexts.

💬Examples

We worked through lunch to beat the clock and submit the proposal by 5 p.m.
If we leave now, we might beat the clock and catch the last train.
She sped up in the final lap, determined to beat the clock.
The team stayed late to beat the clock before the system maintenance began.
He set a timer and raced to beat the clock while cleaning the kitchen.

📘Grammar & Usage Notes

Usually used as a verb phrase: beat the clock (past: beat the clock). Often followed by an infinitive/gerund context (“beat the clock to finish…”). Sometimes appears as “beat the clock by X minutes.”

🔗Synonyms

finish on time
make it in time
meet the deadline
race against time

↔️Antonyms

miss the deadline
run out of time