ppl. a.
1. Occurring, done or made at a good or fitting time; timely, opportune.
1635–56. Cowley, Davideis, III. 839. But Jonathan … With well-tim’d zeal, and with an artful care, Restor’d, and better’d soon the nice affair.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 225. But Wisdom’s triumph is well-tim’d Retreat.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar W., v. This well-timed present pleaded more powerfully in his favour, than anything I had to say could obviate.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xli. IV. 504. Their well-timed and rapid charge decided the conflict.
1855. Paley, Æschylus, Pref. p. xix. By a well-timed humility they might have escaped the curse of ancestral guilt.
1874. R. Tyrwhitt, Sketch. Club, 149. A slight and well-timed frost next morning.
1902. J. Buchan, Watcher by Threshold, 76. The question was well-timed.
2. Actuated in regular time or at the right moment.
1697. Tutchin, Search Honesty, vi. 9. Two gentle Charons, Rowing, he espy’d, With Well-tym’d Oars, upon the Ebbing-Tyde.
1707. E. Smith, Phædra & Hippolitus, III. 26. Ev’n now the well tim’d Oars With sounding Stroaks divide the sparkling Waves.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxxvi. With well-timed croupe the nimble coursers veer.
