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hurry up and wait
Idioms and Phrases
Move quickly and then have to wait for something or someone. For example, We did our share in good time, but the others were several days behind so we couldn't finish—it was another case of hurry up and wait . This expression dates from the 1940s and probably originated in the armed services.Example Sentences
"We have moved into a hurry up and wait situation," he admitted.
The “hurry up and wait†beat of deliberations gave way to anticipatory tension.
“Hurry up and wait†is a concept any military member understands well, and it was an apropos mantra to sum up the trip, which Lombardi said entailed “long periods of boredom that are punctuated with moments of sheer terror.â€
In the meantime, for those who like to hurry up and wait, the TSA’s two-hour policy remains a reasonable one.
For the candidates, it could be a case of hurry up and wait.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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