What does "hourglass" mean?

A clock made of two glass vessels connected by a narrow passage through which sand flows.

How do you pronounce "hourglass"?

Pronounced //ˈaʊəɡlɑːs//.

Common synonyms include: abbreviation, astriction, astringency, bottleneck, cervix, circumscription.

//ˈaʊəɡlɑːs// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Noun

1
A clock made of two glass vessels connected by a narrow passage through which sand flows.
"After each game turn, invert the hourglass to reset the time limit for the next player."
2
a sandglass that runs for sixty minutes wordnet
3
A cursor, often shaped like an hourglass, indicating that the computer is busy.
"When I right click the desktop display to check Display Properties, it hangs and shows me only the hourglass instead of the display menu."

Verb

1
To display the cursor as an hourglass to indicate that the computer is busy.
"I have an ADP that I use for reporting that I have used for about a year. I only use it every 3 months, and it has worked up until now. This morning I tried using it, but after trying to open the report, it hourglassed and then showed a "Timeout expired" error. I searched this message and found out how to set the timeout limit, and set it to 300 seconds. Still the same message."