time warp

Related to time warp: Time travel

time warp

1. In science fiction, an occurrence of traveling forward or backward through time. The scientists activated a time warp so that Thompson could stop the war from ever happening. Traveling into the black hole acted as a time warp, sending us several millennia into the future.
2. A person, place, or thing that manifests the characteristics or aesthetics of a previous time period. The restaurant is a true time warp, delivering an authentic 1950s diner experience to its customers. The film is an odd mashup—a time warp in appearance and aesthetic to the likes of "Casablanca," while having the graphic language and gore of modern R-rated fare.
See also: time, warp
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

time warp

A stoppage in the passage of time; also, a distortion of time whereby an event or person could hypothetically move from one era to another. For example, Nothing in their lives has changed since the sixties; they're in a time warp, or Having a seventy-year-old actress portray a teenager-that was some time warp! This term originated in science fiction, where it signifies "a supernatural movement from one era to another," and came to be used more loosely. [c. 1950]
See also: time, warp
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

time warp

A distortion of space/time causing a person to remain stationary or travel back and forth in time. Originating in the mid-1900s in science fiction, the term soon was used about people or things who seemed to be caught in a particular stage of the past. Thus, Modern Railways used it in February 1986: “The collapse of the Advanced Passenger Train project has left InterCity services on the West Coast main line in a 1970 ‘time warp.’”
See also: time, warp
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • any time means no time
  • against time
  • against the clock
  • any time
  • (it's) time to run
  • anytime
  • (it's) time to push along
  • about time
  • (it's) (a)bout time
  • (it's) time to hit the road
References in periodicals archive
Audience members performing The Time Warp at Wirral's drive-in cinema
Today's new question relates to whether he's slick enough to defy a Group 1 penalty back at a mile in the Chairman's Trophy (9.35), but Time Warp has plenty of speed and will make them all go again if he breaks well from the inside draw.
"Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again" demonstrates an astonishing lack of vision.
GLAM: Dancers perform the Time Warp to promote the Rocky Horror Show
This week a time warp '68 1200 Saloon, with just 88 delivery miles from new, made a bargain pounds 4,800.
I suspect the people who are criticising it are the sort of Luddites who just want things to stay the same for ever, and would have Liverpool stuck in some sort of neo-classical time warp.
Jenks has to be living in a time warp if he still thinks all is well with mother earth.
Yet Westminster politics is still trapped in a time warp of tribal politics" - Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats economics spokesman.
Are we really living in the 21st century or merely stuck in a Middle Eastern time warp?
Scieszka is the author of several best-selling children's titles, including The Stinky Cheese Man, which won a Caldecott Honor medal, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and Time Warp Trio, a chapter book series.
Former second-grade teacher Jon Scieszka--author of the popular Time Warp Trio series and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales--will help the Library of Congress encourage students to read more.
What's on readers' minds: The top local topic made it sound like the Mailbag had entered a time warp from the last election: Numerous letters criticized Lane County's plans to put another public safety income tax measure on the ballot.
Why do diversity experts like Thomas feel trapped in a time warp? Because most corporations have merely replaced the term "affirmative action" with "diversity." Senior management hasn't changed the mindset of employees or modified company culture.
IS THERE ANY WAY TO SET THIS GUY STRAIGHT BEFORE HIS ANTIQUATED THINKING RUINS MY BUSINESS?--TRAPPED IN A TIME WARP, WESTERN, NY Why not invite him to watch a ballet class and help him understand the benefits of this art form?
Another generation of kids deserves to fall in love with Homer Price by Robert McCloskey (Puffin Books); Kids love The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller (Henry Holt), the Time Warp Trio books by John Sciezka (Puffin) and The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater (Alladin).