time of day

the time of day

1. Literally, the specific hour of the day. What an odd time of day to send repairmen over—we were just about to get ready for bed!
2. Time spent chatting or socializing. Used with the verb "pass." I love walking down to the local shop and passing the time of day with everyone in the neighborhood along the way.
3. Basic intelligence or knowledge. Used with negative constructions of the verb "know." We paid for her to attend the best university in the state, but three years in, she still doesn't know the time of day. How can you expect me to respect my boss when he doesn't even know the time of day?
4. Pleasant, friendly recognition or attention. Used in negative constructions, as in "won't give (one) the time of day." My colleagues wouldn't give me the time of day after they found out that my father had influenced the company's decision to hire me. Once he found such huge success, Tom won't give any of his old friends the time of day. That guy didn't give me the time of day back in high school, and now he won't stop calling me.
See also: of, time
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

time of day

The hour shown on a clock; also, a stage in any activity or period. For example, What time of day is the repairman coming? or This is hardly the time of day to ask for another installment when he's just turned one in . [Late 1500s] Also see not give someone the time of day.
See also: of, time
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

give (someone) the time of day, not to/won't

To refuse to pay someone the slightest attention. The analogy here is to refusing to answer even the simple question “What time is it?” The expression dates from the mid-twentieth century. Norman Mailer used it in Advertisements for Myself (1959): “You don’t even give me the time of day. You’re the coldest man I’ve ever known.”
See also: give, not, of, time
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • give (someone) the time of day, not to/won't
  • fight fires
  • at latter Lammas
  • lounge
  • lounge around
  • now
  • just another day at the office
  • all day and every day
  • day or night
  • from day to day
References in periodicals archive
The principal finding from the present study was that the ballistic motor training task induced changes in motor performance and corticospinal excitability, but these changes were not influenced by time of day or circulating cortisol levels.
The present study was motivated by earlier research which showed that the effectiveness of plasticity induced in human motor cortex using paired associative stimulation is influenced by the time of day, with neuroplasticity induced more effectively in the evening compared with the morning [25, 26].
Performance of several motor tasks have been shown to be dependent on time of day [31].
Although no time of day differences in motor performance were reported following completion of the MT task, perhaps the rate of improvement in performance during the MT task was different in the morning and evening experiments.
Time of day does not modulate improvements in motor performance following a repetitive ballistic motor training task
The combined effect of time of day and menstrual cycle on lactate threshold.
Diurnal variations in physical performances related to football in young soccer players
Statistically significant interactions between time of day x level ([F.sub.6,56] = 7.11; P< 0.01) and net x level ([F.sub.3,56] = 9.25; P < 0.01) complicated assessment of time of day and net as main effects in analysis of experimental dives.
Analysis of experimental shelf surveys showed the effect of time of day was nearly significant ([F.sub.2,4] = 6.60; P = 0.05) and effect of net was not significant ([F.sub.1,2] = 0.00; P = 0.99; Table 1).
Our results from assessment of time of day support the conclusion of James (1969) and Baugh and Deacon (1983) who observed that Devils Hole pupfish tend to move into deeper waters in afternoon during summer to avoid thermal stress in shallow water.
First, fish may have used the net as cover; however, lack of a significant interaction between time of day x net x level would indicate otherwise.
Identifying sources of error in surveys of devils hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis)
EFFECT OF TIME OF DAY ON COGNITION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
For both psychology and education, research into the effects of time of day upon performance remains pertinent.
A 2 x 3 factorial design was employed with gender as one factor and time of day the other.
Time-of-day effects were greatest for highly important ideas from difficult passages; the researchers concluded that time of day influences immediate recall of prose, with the effects dependent on the chronotype (morning- versus evening-type) of the individual (Petros, Beckwith, & Anderson, 1990).
Time-of-day effects on human performance
The time of day the event occurred was missing for 19 (30%) of the 64 events.
Public health consequences of mercury spills: Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance system, 1993-1998. (Articles)
The researchers observed that the extent of infarct size was significantly associated with time of day onset of infarction.
Heart attack between 1am to 5am causes greatest injury