Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Time \Time\, n.; pl. {Times}. [OE. time, AS. t[=i]ma, akin to
   t[=i]d time, and to Icel. t[=i]mi, Dan. time an hour, Sw.
   timme. [root]58. See {Tide}, n.]
   1. Duration, considered independently of any system of
      measurement or any employment of terms which designate
      limited portions thereof.

            The time wasteth [i. e. passes away] night and day.
                                                  --Chaucer.

            I know of no ideas . . . that have a better claim to
            be accounted simple and original than those of space
            and time.                             --Reid.

   2. A particular period or part of duration, whether past,
      present, or future; a point or portion of duration; as,
      the time was, or has been; the time is, or will be.

            God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
            in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.
                                                  --Heb. i. 1.

   3. The period at which any definite event occurred, or person
      lived; age; period; era; as, the Spanish Armada was
      destroyed in the time of Queen Elizabeth; -- often in the
      plural; as, ancient times; modern times.

   4. The duration of one's life; the hours and days which a
      person has at his disposal.

            Believe me, your time is not your own; it belongs to
            God, to religion, to mankind.         --Buckminster.

   5. A proper time; a season; an opportunity.

            There is . . . a time to every purpose. --Eccl. iii.
                                                  1.

            The time of figs was not yet.         --Mark xi. 13.

   6. Hour of travail, delivery, or parturition.

            She was within one month of her time. --Clarendon.

   7. Performance or occurrence of an action or event,
      considered with reference to repetition; addition of a
      number to itself; repetition; as, to double cloth four
      times; four times four, or sixteen.

            Summers three times eight save one.   --Milton.

   8. The present life; existence in this world as contrasted
      with immortal life; definite, as contrasted with infinite,
      duration.

            Till time and sin together cease.     --Keble.

   9. (Gram.) Tense.

   10. (Mus.) The measured duration of sounds; measure; tempo;
       rate of movement; rhythmical division; as, common or
       triple time; the musician keeps good time.

             Some few lines set unto a solemn time. --Beau. &
                                                  Fl.

   Note: Time is often used in the formation of compounds,
         mostly self-explaining; as, time-battered,
         time-beguiling, time-consecrated, time-consuming,
         time-enduring, time-killing, time-sanctioned,
         time-scorner, time-wasting, time-worn, etc.

   {Absolute time}, time irrespective of local standards or
      epochs; as, all spectators see a lunar eclipse at the same
      instant of absolute time.

   {Apparent time}, the time of day reckoned by the sun, or so
      that 12 o'clock at the place is the instant of the transit
      of the sun's center over the meridian.

   {Astronomical time}, mean solar time reckoned by counting the
      hours continuously up to twenty-four from one noon to the
      next.

   {At times}, at distinct intervals of duration; now and then;
      as, at times he reads, at other times he rides.

   {Civil time}, time as reckoned for the purposes of common
      life in distinct periods, as years, months, days, hours,
      etc., the latter, among most modern nations, being divided
      into two series of twelve each, and reckoned, the first
      series from midnight to noon, the second, from noon to
      midnight.

   {Common time} (Mil.), the ordinary time of marching, in which
      ninety steps, each twenty-eight inches in length, are
      taken in one minute.

   {Equation of time}. See under {Equation}, n.

   {In time}.
       (a) In good season; sufficiently early; as, he arrived in
           time to see the exhibition.
       (b) After a considerable space of duration; eventually;
           finally; as, you will in time recover your health and
           strength.

   {Mean time}. See under 4th {Mean}.

   {Quick time} (Mil.), time of marching, in which one hundred
      and twenty steps, each thirty inches in length, are taken
      in one minute.

   {Sidereal time}. See under {Sidereal}.

   {Standard time}, the civil time that has been established by
      law or by general usage over a region or country. In
      England the standard time is Greenwich mean solar time. In
      the United States and Canada four kinds of standard time
      have been adopted by the railroads and accepted by the
      people, viz., Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific
      time, corresponding severally to the mean local times of
      the 75th, 90th, 105th, and 120th meridians west from
      Greenwich, and being therefore five, six, seven, and eight
      hours slower than Greenwich time.

   {Time ball}, a ball arranged to drop from the summit of a
      pole, to indicate true midday time, as at Greenwich
      Observatory, England. --Nichol.

   {Time bargain} (Com.), a contract made for the sale or
      purchase of merchandise, or of stock in the public funds,
      at a certain time in the future.

Common \Com"mon\, a. [Compar. {Commoner}; superl. {Commonest}.]
   [OE. commun, comon, OF. comun, F. commun, fr. L. communis;
   com- + munis ready to be of service; cf. Skr. mi to make
   fast, set up, build, Goth. gamains common, G. gemein, and E.
   mean low, common. Cf. {Immunity}, {Commune}, n. & v.]
   1. Belonging or relating equally, or similarly, to more than
      one; as, you and I have a common interest in the property.

            Though life and sense be common to men and brutes.
                                                  --Sir M. Hale.

   2. Belonging to or shared by, affecting or serving, all the
      members of a class, considered together; general; public;
      as, properties common to all plants; the common schools;
      the Book of Common Prayer.

            Such actions as the common good requireth. --Hooker.

            The common enemy of man.              --Shak.

   3. Often met with; usual; frequent; customary.

            Grief more than common grief.         --Shak.

   4. Not distinguished or exceptional; inconspicuous; ordinary;
      plebeian; -- often in a depreciatory sense.

            The honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life.
                                                  --W. Irving.

            This fact was infamous And ill beseeming any common
            man, Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
                                                  --Shak.

            Above the vulgar flight of common souls. --A.
                                                  Murphy.

   5. Profane; polluted. [Obs.]

            What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
                                                  --Acts x. 15.

   6. Given to habits of lewdness; prostitute.

            A dame who herself was common.        --L'Estrange.

   {Common bar} (Law) Same as {Blank bar}, under {Blank}.

   {Common barrator} (Law), one who makes a business of
      instigating litigation.

   {Common Bench}, a name sometimes given to the English Court
      of Common Pleas.

   {Common brawler} (Law), one addicted to public brawling and
      quarreling. See {Brawler}.

   {Common carrier} (Law), one who undertakes the office of
      carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is
      bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and
      when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all
      losses and injuries to the goods, except those which
      happen in consequence of the act of God, or of the enemies
      of the country, or of the owner of the property himself.
      

   {Common chord} (Mus.), a chord consisting of the fundamental
      tone, with its third and fifth.

   {Common council}, the representative (legislative) body, or
      the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or
      other municipal corporation.

   {Common crier}, the crier of a town or city.

   {Common divisor} (Math.), a number or quantity that divides
      two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder; a
      common measure.

   {Common gender} (Gram.), the gender comprising words that may
      be of either the masculine or the feminine gender.

   {Common law}, a system of jurisprudence developing under the
      guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and
      reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be
      superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls.
      --Wharton.

   Note: It is by others defined as the unwritten law
         (especially of England), the law that receives its
         binding force from immemorial usage and universal
         reception, as ascertained and expressed in the
         judgments of the courts. This term is often used in
         contradistinction from {statute law}. Many use it to
         designate a law common to the whole country. It is also
         used to designate the whole body of English (or other)
         law, as distinguished from its subdivisions, local,
         civil, admiralty, equity, etc. See {Law}.

   {Common lawyer}, one versed in common law.

   {Common lewdness} (Law), the habitual performance of lewd
      acts in public.

   {Common multiple} (Arith.) See under {Multiple}.

   {Common noun} (Gram.), the name of any one of a class of
      objects, as distinguished from a proper noun (the name of
      a particular person or thing).

   {Common nuisance} (Law), that which is deleterious to the
      health or comfort or sense of decency of the community at
      large.

   {Common pleas}, one of the three superior courts of common
      law at Westminster, presided over by a chief justice and
      four puisne judges. Its jurisdiction is confined to civil
      matters. Courts bearing this title exist in several of the
      United States, having, however, in some cases, both civil
      and criminal jurisdiction extending over the whole State.
      In other States the jurisdiction of the common pleas is
      limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a {county
      court}. Its powers are generally defined by statute.

   {Common prayer}, the liturgy of the Church of England, or of
      the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States,
      which all its clergy are enjoined to use. It is contained
      in the Book of Common Prayer.

   {Common school}, a school maintained at the public expense,
      and open to all.

   {Common scold} (Law), a woman addicted to scolding
      indiscriminately, in public.

   {Common seal}, a seal adopted and used by a corporation.

   {Common sense}.
      (a) A supposed sense which was held to be the common bond
          of all the others. [Obs.] --Trench.
      (b) Sound judgment. See under {Sense}.

   {Common time} (Mus.), that variety of time in which the
      measure consists of two or of four equal portions.

   {In common}, equally with another, or with others; owned,
      shared, or used, in community with others; affecting or
      affected equally.

   {Out of the common}, uncommon; extraordinary.

   {Tenant in common}, one holding real or personal property in
      common with others, having distinct but undivided
      interests. See {Joint tenant}, under {Joint}.

   {To make common cause with}, to join or ally one's self with.

   Syn: General; public; popular; national; universal; frequent;
        ordinary; customary; usual; familiar; habitual; vulgar;
        mean; trite; stale; threadbare; commonplace. See
        {Mutual}, {Ordinary}, {General}.

Source : WordNet®

common time
     n : a time signature indicating four beats to the bar [syn: {four-four
         time}, {quadruple time}, {common measure}]