SPARE TIME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spare time mean? 

• SPARE TIME (noun)
  The noun SPARE TIME has 2 senses:

1. time available for hobbies and other activities that you enjoy

2. time that is free from duties or responsibilities

  Familiarity information: SPARE TIME used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPARE TIME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Time available for hobbies and other activities that you enjoy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

free time; spare time

Hypernyms ("spare time" is a kind of...):

time off (a time period when you are not required to work)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Time that is free from duties or responsibilities

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

free time; spare time

Hypernyms ("spare time" is a kind of...):

leisure; leisure time (time available for ease and relaxation)

 Context examples 

Mrs. Bennet was not in the habit of walking; Mary could never spare time; but the remaining five set off together.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I spend a good deal of my own spare time in walking up and down to meet her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then, I'll have my spare time for study and for real work.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I think, Watson, that we must spare time to run down together on Saturday morning and make sure that this curious and inclusive investigation has no untoward ending.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“And now you must on no account lose another instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told me. You must get home instantly and act.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was posting away as if upon life and death, and could but just spare time to tell us his errand, and where you all were.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Johnson seems to spend all his spare time there or aloft at the crosstrees, watching the Ghost cleaving the water under press of sail.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I shall write more like them, and better; but I shall do it in my spare time.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But matters were no sooner in this state, than he devoted all his spare time (and got up earlier to make it more) to these perambulations.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Your mother is quite anxious about it, but cannot very well spare time to sit down herself, because of her fringe.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)