Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 273. The idiom today is against the clock. Okay. Let's take a look the note here. If someone has to do something against the clock, he or she must do it in a hurried manner because a deadline is soon or time is restricted. Time is limited. Okay. Let's continue, The phrase is most often heard with the verb race.So we often say we are racing against the clock. But it could also be used with some others such as speed. You could be speeding against the clock. Hurrying against the clock. You know, etc. Okay. The origin of the phrase is believed to have derived around the middle of the past century, when time limited sports became popular. You know, like basketball or or any sport that's on a clock. Then ... so a lot of times the players may, maybe they had a race against the clock to try to catch up before the end of the game. Or you know to , to win to score the winning points. So let's take a look at several examples here. So we have the first example about sports. Number one. He said he had to race against the clock to make the game-winning basket. So maybe it was a close score. Maybe that one basket made the difference put the other team ahead. So yes he had a race against the clock. He was looking you know, only several seconds were left. So he had to take a shot and hopefully he made the basket. All right number two. I was just handed new material and I had to race against the clock to review it you know , before whatever it is that you were doing. Maybe you needed to give a speech or maybe you had to discuss so talk about something. But you didn't have a lot of time to review this new material. You had to race against the clock. Hey number three. We were trying to speed against the clock to meet the deadline. So they're trying to hurry. So this is exactly how you use it. Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it is clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
A2 US clock race basket deadline score winning Englis Tutor Nick P Idioms (273) Against the Clock 13 0 anitawu12 posted on 2019/09/11 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary