idiom · neutral

no time to lose

UK/nəʊ ˈtaɪm tə luːz/US/noʊ ˈtaɪm tə luz/no·TIME·to·lose

speakingtask2

used to say that you must act quickly because delay would be harmful

Examples

“With the deadline only an hour away, there's no time to lose if we want to finish.”

“The storm is getting worse—rescue teams have no time to lose.”

“We have no time to lose; let's start packing now.”

Band 8 sentence

“With the deadline closing in and several tasks still unfinished, there's simply no time to lose if we want a polished submission.”

Collocations

  • have no time to lose
  • there is no time to lose
  • we have no time to lose

Word family

there's no time to lose idiom (phrase)have no time to lose idiom (phrase)

Common mistakes

I have no time lose.→I have no time to lose.

There is no a time to lose.→There is no time to lose.

We have no time wasting on this.→We have no time to waste on this.

Say it for a higher band

5we must hurry→6we don't have much time→7+no time to lose

Synonyms

no time to waste

urgent

Easily confused

no time to waste

“We have no time to waste on trivial things; the exam starts in ten minutes.”

Related words

for the time beingin the meantimein no timein the long runonce in a blue moonrace against timerun out of timetake your time

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In Time

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