过时不候 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• being late is not acceptable

Character by character

• 过guòpass; to go across, to pass through
• 时shítime, season; period, era, age
• 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
• 候hòuto wait, to expect; to visit; to greet

Idioms sharing a character

• 一笔带过 yī bǐ dài guò
• 不过如此 bù guò rú cǐ
• 不过尔尔 bù guò ěr ěr
• 事不过三 shì bù guò sān
• 事过境迁 shì guò jìng qiān
• 人谁无过 rén shéi wú guò
• 大喜过望 dà xǐ guò wàng
• 将功补过 jiāng gōng bǔ guò
• 得过且过 dé guò qiě guò
• 悔过自新 huǐ guò zì xīn

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.