Time-waster

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Someone who wastes their own time or the time of others.

    "I showed him round the property thinking he was a prospective buyer, but in fact he was just a time-waster."

  2. 2
    Something unproductive. idiomatic, informal

    "Email was supposed to improve business efficiency, but all too often it turns out to be a time-waster."

  3. 3
    Something which passes the time that may or may not be seen positively.

    "This puzzle book is a good time-waster when my train is late."

Example

More examples

"I showed him round the property thinking he was a prospective buyer, but in fact he was just a time-waster."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.