biding one's time

Grammar usage guide and real-world examples

Standing in the rain on Main Street, grimly biding one's time in the hope of a high-five with Goofy: is there a more foolproof way to break the will of a man?

Clodoaldo Pelissioni, in charge of transport at São Paulo state council, thinks it is just a matter of biding one's time.

Some, like Mr. Paul and Senator Mark Steven Kirk, Republican of Illinois, seem to view the old Senate rituals of biding one's time and deferring to senior members as passé.

"No," the passive, insecure young man reflects, "it was best to bide one's time -- to keep hoping".

For most of the period between Mao's death in 1976 and the advent of Xi, China followed the adage, attributed to Deng, of "hiding one's capabilities and biding time".

"We're just biding our time," one of them said.

Could something worse than Spanish flu deadlier and more transmissible be biding its time on some vampire bat's fangs, one bite away from patient zero's bloodstream?

Rebecca Nicholson "Celebrity is just obscurity biding its time … " Carrie Fisher's one-woman HBO show, based on her recent memoir of the same name, is studded with hardened, diamond-sharp observations like this.

But I bided my time.

"I bided my time," jockey Edgar Prado said.

I bided my time a little more.