[agent-n. from the phrase ‘to serve the time’ (cited 1560): see SERVE v.1 11.]
1. One who adapts his conduct to the time or season; usually, one who on grounds of self-interest shapes his conduct in conformity to the views that are in favor at the time; a temporizer, a ‘trimmer.’
(By Fuller used in a neutral or good sense.)
1564. G. Babington, Frailty & Faith (1596), 49. Will then a dissembling time-seruer not be vncased?
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 136. This brave man is a Georgian by discent, a Mussulman by profession, a Time-server for preferment.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 219. A Time-server wears his Religion, Reason, and Understanding always in the Mode.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), II. 904/2. He was never a timeserver either in word or action.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 188. The Puritan … deserted by all the timeservers who, in his prosperity, had claimed brotherhood with him.
1898. L. Stephen, Stud. Biog., I. v. 148. Every autobiography is interesting, even when it unveils a mere time-server and hypocrite.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. State, III. xix. 202. He is a good time-server, that complys his manners to the several ages of this life; pleasant in youth, without wantonness; grave in old age, without frowardness…. He is a good time-server, that finds out the fittest opportunity for every action.
† 2. One who serves only for a time, and afterwards deserts or ‘falls away.’ Obs. rare.
a. 1575. Bp. Pilkington, Expos. Neh. iv. 15 (1585), 65. Such be those time-seruers which the Gospel speaketh of, that for a time make a shew in seruing the Lord, but in the tyme of triall they fall away.
