garbage time

English

Noun

garbage time (uncountable)

1. (sports) The period at the end of a timed sporting event that has become a blowout when the outcome of the game has already been decided, and the coaches of one or both teams will often decide to replace their best players with substitutes.

   Synonym: junk time

   • 1991, Kathleen Warnock, To the Top, page 16:

     I play for two minutes of garbage time at the end of a blowout? Is that all the time I'm going to see anymore?

   • 2012, Don Winslow, The Gentlemen's Hour: A Novel, page 92:

     It was garbage time, really, but it was a chance to get Corey some playing time, and Pedersen was out of pitchers anyway.

   • 2014, Jim Farrell, Kiss Me, Kate and Other Stories, page 199:

     I usually just got in during garbage time, which there was a lot of that year as we rolled to another state championship.