In the nick of time
Hello and welcome back… just in the nick of time. Today’s January 30th, the last day of the month and my post arrives late but not too late. Indeed, it gets here at the last possible moment, just before it’s too late. That’s what the phrase in the nick of time means. Sometimes a just is used before it or a very is inserted in the middle to make it more emphatic: just in the nick of time or in the very nick of time. Here are some examples: 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. | We got there just in the nick of time. A minute later and she’d have left.