in the nick of time

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*in the (very) nick of time

Fig. just in time; at the last possible instant; just before it's too late. (*Typically: arrive ~; get there ~; happen ~; reach something ~; Save someone ~.) The doctor arrived in the nick of time. The patient's life was saved. I reached the airport in the very nick of time and made my flight.

See also: nick, time

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? References in classic literature
The doctor came in the nick of time, and soon brought her to. No Name by Collins, Wilkie View in context It came into my mind in the nick of time, how Columbus, or Cortez, or one of those people, played an eclipse as a saving trump once, on some savages, and I saw my chance. A Connecticut Yankee by Twain, Mark View in context She was horrified to think how near she had come to being guilty herself; she had been saved in the nick of time by a revival in the colored Methodist Church, a fortnight before, at which time and place she "got religion. Pudd'n'head Wilson by Twain, Mark View in context More results

? References in classic literature

The doctor came in the nick of time, and soon brought her to.

No Name by Collins, Wilkie View in context

It came into my mind in the nick of time, how Columbus, or Cortez, or one of those people, played an eclipse as a saving trump once, on some savages, and I saw my chance.

A Connecticut Yankee by Twain, Mark View in context

She was horrified to think how near she had come to being guilty herself; she had been saved in the nick of time by a revival in the colored Methodist Church, a fortnight before, at which time and place she "got religion.

Pudd'n'head Wilson by Twain, Mark View in context

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