Time and tide wait for no man

The processes of nature continue, no matter how much we might like them to stop. The word tide meant “time” when this proverb was created, so it may have been the alliteration of the words that first appealed to people. Now the word tide in this proverb is usually thought of in terms of the sea, which certainly does not wait for anyone.

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Idioms and Phrases

One must not procrastinate or delay, as in Let's get on with the voting; time and tide won't wait, you know. This proverbial phrase, alluding to the fact that human events or concerns cannot stop the passage of time or the movement of the tides, first appeared about 1395 in Chaucer's Prologue to the Clerk's Tale. The alliterative beginning, time and tide, was repeated in various contexts over the years but today survives only in the proverb, which is often shortened (as above).

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Chaucer wrote that time and tide wait for no man.

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And for no reason the stupid proverb of my school-days ran through my mind, “Time and Tide wait for no man.”

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“Time and Tide wait for no man.”

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“Time and tide wait for no man. The babe will soon be grown. And then what?”

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Dot, who also dug clams, knew that “time and tide wait for no man,” but, having no choice, she did in early July what she’d hoped to do in March or April.

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time and motion study time bill

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