time warp

time warp

noun
a hypothetical eccentricity in the progress of time that would allow movement back and forth between eras or that would permit the passage of time to be suspended.

Origin:
1950–55
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Time warp is always a great word to know.
So is slumgullion. Does it mean:
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
Collins
World English Dictionary
time warp
 
n
1.  any distortion of space-time
2.  a hypothetical distortion of time in which people and events from one age can be imagined to exist in another age
3.  informal an illusion in which time appears to stand still: he is living in a time warp

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

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 teenagerthat 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]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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