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What is the meaning of the 'ride out the clock'?

Sol: Some things there’s no good way to do. How do I tell the woman I’ve loved for forty years that I can’t be with her if I want to be happy?

FRANKIE: You don’t! Ride out the clock! Stay miserable. I’ve got news for you: the next chapter ain’t that long. (then, realizing) Wait. Is this why you got the Cialis??

I could not find it in any dictionary, but one of the sites says "ride out the clock means to wait until there is no time left".
How does it come to have that meaning? Is that an idiom?

It is in the drama Grace and Frankie, https://tvwriting.co.uk/tv_scripts/Collections/Comedy/Grace_and_Frankie/Grace_and_Frankie_1x01_-_The_End.pdf

Thank you very much.

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  • It's sorta like Just serve your time and don't do anything hasty. In contexts where unless you actively change the situation or take risks, the end result will be in your favour by default.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 9 at 17:28
  • @Lambie: Duh. By pointing out that there's a far more common usage in British English that's been around for centuries, whereas run out the clock is a relatively recent idiom that won't mean much at all to the average Brit. How exactly does your comment advance the discussion?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 9 at 19:13
  • @Lambie: Don't be daft! My linked chart clearly shows that run out the clock edged out serve your time in BrE two just decades ago (when the Internet made it much easier for AmE usages to cross the pond). Probably many of the BrE matches are misclassifications anyway. And even in AmE it only gained ascendancy in the 60s. Please stop telling me what I should do. Do I do that to you?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 9 at 19:19
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    You really are being embarrassingly nit-picky. My first comment was true, and I'm only fishing out support for it because you're trying to make an issue of it. Pointlessly.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 9 at 19:24
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    "Serve your time" sounds like doing time in prison! :D
    – stackoverblown
    Commented Jun 10 at 15:45

1 Answer 1

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It was borrowed from sports but it is also a mixed metaphor:

to run out the clock

So, you're winning but probably won't make any more goals, so you just keep playing without being offensive in your moves to keep the ball away from the other team so it doesn't score.

run out the clock

So, here, it just means keep going in the relationship for as long as it lasts. The guy also then says: there's not that much time to go.

It's sort of a mixed metaphor: to ride out a storm and he put it with clock.

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  • 2
    +1 for mixed metaphor, which is a generous way of putting it.
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 9 at 17:57
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    I don't really see it as a mixed metaphor. One can ride out many things - a storm, a recession, a boss' bad mood, or simply a period of time. Here "clock" is used as metonymy for a duration of time which one is riding out. It's not a mixed metaphor to "ride out the week", and not much more mixed to "ride out the clock". "Clock" isn't a metaphor here, it's a metonymy.
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Commented Jun 10 at 13:51
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    I'd make a distinction between "to ride out the clock" and "to run out the clock". The latter means to act in a manner that consumes as much time as possible, without necessarily being productive, so as to preserve the current status. That's more or less what you said. But the former is more passive. It does not imply actively working to consume time, but only continuing -- perhaps enduring or holding out -- until time expires.
    – John Bollinger
    Commented Jun 10 at 14:59
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    @NuclearHoagie Given the existence of ride out a storm or any situation and run out the clock (a firmly attested usage) in sports, I disagree.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jun 10 at 15:42
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    I am the OP, and I thank Lambie very much for answering my question. Now I understand it better, and I wonder how the phrase is not in any dictionary, not even in the Urban dictionary if most native speakers understand the meaning. Also, I appreciate all others comments. Thank you,
    – user1026669
    Commented Jun 10 at 18:16

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