idiom · informal
buy time
/baɪ taɪm/BUY·time
speakingtask2
delay something or create extra time so you can deal with a problem
Examples
“He asked about the homework to buy time while he tried to remember the answer.”
“We negotiated slowly to buy time for the team to finish the report.”
“Buying time can be sensible if you need to gather facts before answering.”
Band 8 sentence
“The lawyer asked a few routine questions to buy time while he prepared his argument.”
Collocations
- buy time by doing something
- buy time for someone
Word family
buy time verb phrasebuying time gerund/participle
Common mistakes
buy a time→buy time
spend time→buy time
Say it for a higher band
5delay→6postpone→7+buy time
Synonyms
delay
stall
Easily confused
stall
“They stalled the meeting to allow more time for discussion.”
delay
“Bad weather delayed the launch by several hours.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In Time
Learn it with its set