# How many meanings has the phrase "time flies like an arrow" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706 "2010-11-23T21:51:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/21 "2010-11-24T06:37:58Z")
Got one! Please measure the amount of time it takes these flies to do some unmentioned tasks. Also, become fond of an arrow. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/22 "2010-11-24T06:43:46Z")
Or then there is the symbolic meaning, but applied to the arrow as a shape rather than as a physical item. Time flies in such a way that it goes straight forward for a while, spreads out suddenly, and then tapers to a point. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/23 "2010-11-24T09:02:09Z")
Use your stopwatch to ascertain how quickly people can zip up their pants in a swift, straight manner. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/24 "2010-11-24T09:09:16Z")
Confucius say: When attempting to cook long, straight strips of potato (that are sharply tapered at one end) in oil, it is necessary to time the operation precisery. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/25 "2010-11-24T10:44:17Z")
Find some flies that are similar to an arrow, and time them. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/26 "2010-11-24T11:46:38Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Find some flies that are similar to an arrow, and time them. That is equivalent to the third one in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/27 "2010-11-24T11:54:13Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > That is equivalent to the third one in the OP. Yea, I realized that after I posted it, but too late to edit it. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/28 "2010-11-24T12:39:46Z")
She bears each cross patiently? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/29 "2010-11-24T15:35:34Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > She bears each cross patiently? 😕 Would you care to explain? ```auto If you fold up this news magazine (the world's largest) just so, you can project it through the air a considerable distance, and with considerable accuracy. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/30 "2010-11-24T15:37:07Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > 😕 Would you care to explain? > > ```auto > > If you fold up this news magazine (the world's largest) just so, you can project it through the air a considerable distance, and with considerable accuracy. > > ``` Just another phrase with many possible meanings. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/31 "2010-11-24T15:41:30Z")
Darn, the last has been done and I missed the edit window. ☚ ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/32 "2010-11-24T15:45:30Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Just another phrase with many possible meanings. Oh, I am with you now: like the striptease artist distracting drivers and making things difficult for pedestrians. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/33 "2010-11-24T15:46:35Z")
Has this one been done: The objects known as “time flies” are similar to arrows in an unspecified way. It should really have a comma: Time flies, like an arrow. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/34 "2010-11-24T16:57:28Z")
Wait, so are we allowed to add punctuation? Because if so, it could be a Valley girl making fun of that geeky pilot named Time… “Time flies, like, an _arrow_.” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/35 "2010-11-24T17:18:13Z")
Well you wouldn’t necessarily need punctuation in my example, it would just be a sentence fragment. Upon checking the OP it did specify “phrase” rather than sentence. You could use it in a sci fi novel to describe the action of “time flies”: The time flies like an arrow did plunge into the center of the combat. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/36 "2010-11-24T17:21:24Z")
A Pierce Arrow was an automobile and as such didn’t fly at all. So if time was passing slowly, you could sarcasticly say that time is flying like a car. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/37 "2010-11-24T21:11:08Z")
The amount of force exerted by the passage (or flight) of time is approximately that which would be represented by an attonewton using arrow notation. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/38 "2010-11-24T21:18:24Z")
The time that flies like is an arrow. (This would not be correct grammar except in newspaper headlines, but still, constructions such as this are used regularly. Or should I say “Constructions like this used regularly”) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/39 "2010-11-24T22:39:59Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Now we’re getting into semantics. I’ve understood the whole point of “Time flies like an arrow” as a thought excercise about the ambiguities of grammar itself. Both sem and gram. The phrase was coined by someone or other in early work on AI precisely to play with a computer’s “understanding.” ---
**Author:** ![phaemon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/977dab/32.png) [@phaemon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phaemon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-meanings-has-the-phrase-time-flies-like-an-arrow/561706/40 "2010-11-25T14:37:19Z")
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