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time immemorial

Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)



   {Time bill}. Same as {Time-table}. [Eng.]

   {Time book}, a book in which is kept a record of the time
      persons have worked.

   {Time detector}, a timepiece provided with a device for
      registering and indicating the exact time when a watchman
      visits certain stations in his beat.

   {Time enough}, in season; early enough. ``Stanly at Bosworth
      field, . . . came time enough to save his life.'' --Bacon.

   {Time fuse}, a fuse, as for an explosive projectile, which
      can be so arranged as to ignite the charge at a certain
      definite interval after being itself ignited.

   {Time immemorial}, or {Time out of mind}. (Eng. Law) See
      under {Immemorial}.

   {Time lock}, a lock having clockwork attached, which, when
      wound up, prevents the bolt from being withdrawn when
      locked, until a certain interval of time has elapsed.

   {Time of day}, salutation appropriate to the times of the
      day, as ``good morning,'' ``good evening,'' and the like;
      greeting.

   {To kill time}. See under {Kill}, v. t.

   {To make time}.
       (a) To gain time.
       (b) To occupy or use (a certain) time in doing something;
           as, the trotting horse made fast time.

   {To move}, {run}, or {go}, {against time}, to move, run, or
      go a given distance without a competitor, in the quickest
      possible time; or, to accomplish the greatest distance
      which can be passed over in a given time; as, the horse is
      to run against time.

   {True time}.
       (a) Mean time as kept by a clock going uniformly.
       (b) (Astron.) Apparent time as reckoned from the transit
           of the sun's center over the meridian.

Immemorial \Im`me*mo"ri*al\, a. [Pref. im- not + memorial: cf.
   F. imm['e]morial.]
   Extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition;
   indefinitely ancient; as, existing from time immemorial.
   ``Immemorial elms.'' --Tennyson. ``Immemorial usage or
   custom.'' --Sir M. Hale.

   {Time immemorial} (Eng. Law.), a time antedating (legal)
      history, and beyond ``legal memory'' so called; formerly
      an indefinite time, but in 1276 this time was fixed by
      statute as the begining of the reign of Richard I. (1189).
      Proof of unbroken possession or use of any right since
      that date made it unnecessary to establish the original
      grant. In 1832 the plan of dating legal memory from a
      fixed time was abandoned and the principle substituted
      that rights which had been enjoyed for full twenty years
      (or as against the crown thirty years) should not be
      liable to impeachment merely by proving that they had not
      been enjoyed before.

Source : WordNet®

time immemorial
     n : the distant past beyond memory [syn: {time out of mind}]
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