one's days are numbered

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Someone's time is limited, often because they will soon be replaced or punished.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Thời gian của ai đó là có hạn, thường vì họ sẽ sớm bị thay thế hoặc trừng phạt

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: the count of one's days
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The manager knows his days are numbered after the company was sold.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “one's days are numbered” mean?

Someone's time is limited, often because they will soon be replaced or punished. Literally: the count of one's days

Is “one's days are numbered” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.