timekeeper

See also: time-keeper

English

Alternative forms

• time-keeper

Etymology

From time +‎ keeper.

Noun

timekeeper (plural timekeepers)

1. A device that shows the time; a timepiece.

   Synonyms: timepiece, clock, watch

   • 1878 March 30, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic. Lecture Delivered at the Old South Church, March 30, 1878, Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Osgood and Company […], published 1878, →OCLC, page 1:

     The sailors sail by chronometers that do not lose two or three seconds in a year, ever since [Isaac] Newton explained to Parliament that the way to improve navigation was to get good watches, and to offer public premiums for a better time-keeper than any then in use.

2. A person who keeps records of the hours of attendance of employees.
3. (sports) A person who records the time elapsed in a sporting event.

   Synonym: timer

4. (music) The group member who controls the rhythm of the music when a group of musicians play together.
   • 2011, Harris M. Berger, Metal, Rock, and Jazz: Perception and the Phenomenology of Musical Experience, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page 152:

     There was no consensus among jazz musicians about who was the primary timekeeper in a jazz band; some said the drummers and others said the bassist.

5. (usually with adjective) A person (or something controlled by a person) that is punctual.
   • 1961 April, Warren Smith, “The problems of train regulation - a study of operation at Trent”, in Trains Illustrated, page 217:

     As it happens, the Leicester–Beeston train is quite a good timekeeper—it sometimes runs a few minutes early— […]

Related terms

• timekeeping

Translations

timepiece — see timepiece

a person who keeps records of the hours of attendance of employees

• Hungarian: munkafelügyelő (hu)

a person who records the time elapsed in a sporting event

• Bulgarian: хронометрист m (hronometrist)
• Hungarian: időmérő bíró
• Spanish: cronometrador m
• Swahili: mtunza muda

Further reading

• “timekeeper”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “timekeeper”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “timekeeper”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “timekeeper”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.