give the time of day

Definition

To acknowledge someone; to give someone respect or attention; to tip one's hat.

Etymology

According to some, the expression originally literally referred to greeting someone with the obsolete greeting "good time of day", or other greeting appropriate to the time of day (e.g., good morning, good afternoon, good evening), and only later acquired an association with telling someone the time, along with its idiomatic sense.

Example Sentences

• "If you're lucky, she might give you the time of day."
• "But meet him now, and be it in the Morne, / When euery one will giue the time of day, / He knits his Brow and ſhewes an angry Eye, / And paſſeth by with ſtiffe vnbowed Knee, / Diſdaining dutie that to vs belongs."
• "He won't give the time of day to someone like you or me."

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