time was
phrase1
Dated It was once true (that)...; there was a time when...
- Time was, the feet of the messengers of peace were glorious, but now their message is mean; […] time was, thou wert exceeding tender of the least sin, and not a day past, but thy cheeks were wet in secret before the Lord; now thou art grown blind […] .a. 1659, Jonathan Mitchell, editor, The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied [sermons of Thomas Shepard], 1797 edition, volume 2, page 259 http://books.google.com/books?id=uvI2AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA259&dq=glorious
- I call him poor; but time was, that in our intercourse I was the obliged party.1879, John Berwick Harwood, Young Lord Penrith, chapter 34; as serialized in, 1879 June 21, Chambers's Journal, fourth series, number 808; which was reprinted in, Chambers's Journal 1879, page 387 http://books.google.com/books?id=mtwXAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA387&dq=%22but+time+was+that%22
1 more example
- Liberal arts and community colleges as well as other teaching-centered institutions have always promoted high standards of teaching excellence. But time was that no one really cared much what instructors in more research-oriented universities did in the classroom, as long as it was legal.2010, Linda B. Nilson, Teaching at Its Best, 3rd edition, Jossey-Bass, →ISBN, page xvii:
- Related terms
- once upon a time, long ago, way back when