Crossword clues for punctuality
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Punctuality \Punc`tu*al"i*ty\, n. [Cf. F. ponctualit['e].] The quality or state of being punctual; especially, adherence to the exact time of an engagement; exactness.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"exactness," 1610s; see punctual + -ity. Meaning "promptness" is from 1777.
Wiktionary
n. The state of being punctual
WordNet
n. the quality or habit of adhering to an appointed time [syn: promptness] [ant: tardiness]
Wikipedia
Punctuality is the characteristic of being able to complete a required task or fulfill an obligation before or at a previously designated time. "Punctual" is often used synonymously with "on time". It is also acceptable that punctual can also, be related to talking about grammar, mean "to be accurate".
An opposite personality trait is tardiness.
According to each culture, there is often an understanding about what is considered an acceptable degree of punctuality. Usually, a small amount of lateness is acceptable; this is commonly about ten or fifteen minutes in Western cultures, but this is not the case in such instances as doctor's appointments or school lessons. In some cultures, such as Japanese society, and settings, such as military ones, expectations may be much stricter.
Some cultures have an unspoken understanding that actual deadlines are different from stated deadlines, for example with Africa time. For example, it may be understood in a particular culture that people will turn up an hour later than advertised. In this case, since everyone understands that a 9 pm party will actually start at around 10 pm, no-one is inconvenienced when everyone arrives at 10 pm.
In cultures which value punctuality, being late is seen as disrespectful of others' time and may be considered insulting. In such cases, punctuality may be enforced by social penalties, for example by excluding low-status latecomers from meetings entirely. Such considerations can lead on to considering the value of punctuality in econometrics and to considering the effects of non-punctuality on others in queueing theory.
Usage examples of "punctuality".
Next morning Count Torriano came to see me, thanked me for my punctuality, congratulated himself on the pleasure he expected to derive from my society, and told me he was very sorry we could not start for two days, as a suit was to be heard the next day between himself and a rascally old farmer who was trying to cheat him.
The Shadow - not Ducky Murrick - was depending upon the punctuality for which Doc was noted.
The bills signed by Morrel were presented at his office with scrupulous exactitude, and, thanks to the delay granted by the Englishman, were paid by Cocles with equal punctuality.
In England all judicial proceedings are conducted with the utmost punctuality, and everything went off as I had arranged.
But Orace, after one disapproving glance round, brazenly continued with his task, as though no amount of objections to his intrusion could stop him enforcing punctuality.
He was so convinced and conscious of his isolation, his swimming in the water, his uprootedness, that a glimpse now and then of the orderly daily round--the punctuality, for example, that kept me to my office hours, or an expression let fall by a servant or tramway conductor--acted on him literally as a stimulus without in the least arousing his scorn.
Tibbets, and the mistress of the house was a precisian in punctuality.
But once more we were disagreeably surprised by the strict punctuality of the lady of the house.
I almost miss poor Brummy in spite of his narrow views on punctuality for dinner, but please do something about Mrs.
They brought the Fram backwards and forwards, twice each way, through those ice-filled southern waters that many experts even held to be so dangerous that the Fram would not be able to come through them, and on both trips this was done with the speed and punctuality of a ship on her regular route.
Monimia, who, in a most dignified style of rebuke, chid her for her indelicacy and presumption, observing, that she could have no title to take such freedoms with lodgers, whose punctuality and regular deportment left her no room to complain.
She was ready when he fetched her, and he chaffed her for her unwonted punctuality.
At Creil, as at Noyon, Saint Joseph seemed a favourite saint on the score of punctuality.
Andrew was less deeply shocked than his wife at the discovery of Ronald's various delinquencies, but his sense of order and punctuality was constantly outraged.
The captain was certainly a stickler for punctuality, but whether he was such a stickler for abiding by the law was another question.