at a time
prep_phrase1
In a single, continuous period of time.
- He manages to abstain from smoking for weeks at a time, but then gives in and starts again.
2
Simultaneously at each occurrence (of some action).
- climb stairs two at a time
- The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.[…]Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 58–59:
3
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see at, a, time.
- We can't buy a new car at a time when we are already running low on money.
- Synonyms
- in a row, at a stretch, at once, at one time, at the same time, simultaneously, together
- Antonyms
- individually, one at a time, piecemeal, separately, severally, singly
- Derived terms
- one at a time