time and tide wait for no man

proverb The opportunities of life will pass you by if you delay or procrastinate in taking advantage of them. You've had so many chances to get research grants or earn a master's degree, but you never get around to applying for any of them. You're going to end up stuck in the same dead-end career for your whole life, if you're not careful—time and tide wait for no man.

Prov. Things will not wait for you when you are late. Hurry up or we'll miss the bus! Time and tide wait for no man. Ellen: It's time to leave. Aren't you finished dressing yet? Fred: I can't decide which necktie looks best with this shirt. Ellen: Time and tide wait for no man, dear.

One must not procrastinate or delay, as in Let's get on with the voting; time and tide won't wait, you know. This proverbial phrase, alluding to the fact that human events or concerns cannot stop the passage of time or the movement of the tides, first appeared about 1395 in Chaucer's Prologue to the Clerk's Tale. The alliterative beginning, time and tide, was repeated in various contexts over the years but today survives only in the proverb, which is often shortened (as above).

Stop procrastinating; do it now. This old proverb is usually interpreted to mean that the course of neither time nor the seas’ tides can be halted or delayed, so you’d better get on with what you’re supposed to do. An early version (1592) stated, “Tyde nor time tarrieth no man.” Later it was “Time and tide for no man stay.” Sir Walter Scott was fond of the present locution, using it several times. There are versions in German and French as well.