duration
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du·ra·tion
(do͝o-rā′shən, dyo͝o-)duration
(djʊˈreɪʃən)du•ra•tion
(dʊˈreɪ ʃən, dyʊ-)n.
Duration
(See also TIME.)
a coon’s age A long time; a blue moon; usually in the phrase in a coon’s age. This U.S. expression dates from 1843. Although its exact origin is not known, it may have derived from the raccoon’s habit of disappearing for long periods of sleep during the winter months when it would not be seen out for “ages.”
long haul An extended period of time; a great distance, especially one over which material is transported. This latter use probably gave rise to the former figurative one referring to time. In or over the long haul, both currently popular, suggest a broad, inclusive perspective, one that sees everything as part of an ongoing process.
a month of Sundays An unspecified but usually prolonged period of time; a seemingly endless interval of time. Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, was observed in the 19th century with the utmost dignity and decorum. All entertainment and frivolity were strictly taboo; thus the day seemed never ending. As used today this expression describes a period of time experienced as longer than it actually is because of tediousness or boredom.
I ain’t been out of this blessed hole … for a month of Sundays. (Rolf Bolderwood, Robbery Under Arms, 1888)
pissing-while A brief span of time; a few minutes. This obsolete expression, clearly derived from the short period of time required to urinate, appeared in Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona:
He had not been there a pissing-while, but all the chamber smelt him. (IV, iv)
till the cows come home For a long time, forever. This expression, dating from the 17th century, apparently first indicated shamefully late or early morning hours, as in this citation from Alexander Cooke’s Pope Joan (1610):
Drinking, eating, feasting, and revelling, till the cows come home, as the saying is.
A possible explanation as to the origin of the phrase is found in the English satirist Jonathan Swift’s literal use of it in Polite Conversation (1738), where it refers to a slugabed who did not get up until it was time for the cows to come home for the evening milking:
I warrant you lay abed till the cows come home.
| Noun | 1. | duration - the period of time during which something continues period, period of time, time period - an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period" clocking - the time taken to traverse a measured course; "it was a world record clocking" longueur - a period of dullness or boredom (especially in a work of literature or performing art) residence time - the period of time spent in a particular place span - the complete duration of something; "the job was finished in the span of an hour" stint, stretch - an unbroken period of time during which you do something; "there were stretches of boredom"; "he did a stretch in the federal penitentiary" time scale - an arrangement of events used as a measure of duration; "on the geological time scale mankind has existed but for a brief moment" rule - the duration of a monarch's or government's power; "during the rule of Elizabeth" |
| 2. | duration - the property of enduring or continuing in time time - the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past | |
| 3. | duration - continuance in time; "the ceremony was of short duration"; "he complained about the length of time required" temporal property - a property relating to time longness - duration as an extension protraction, lengthiness, prolongation, continuation - the consequence of being lengthened in duration endlessness - the property of being (or seeming to be) without end shortness - the property of being of short temporal extent; "the shortness of air travel time" permanence, permanency - the property of being able to exist for an indefinite duration impermanence, impermanency - the property of not existing for indefinitely long durations |
duration
duration
nounduration
[djʊəˈreɪʃən] N → duración fcourses are of two years' duration → los cursos tienen una duración de dos años
for the duration of the war → mientras dure la guerra
duration
[djʊˈreɪʃən] n → durée ffor the duration of the holiday → pendant la durée des vacances, pour la durée des vacances
of 8 months' duration → d'une durée de 8 mois
for the duration (= for the whole time) → jusqu'à la fin