Hourglass Done Emoji
An hourglass with all the sand fallen, standing for time that has run out.
Try Hourglass Done emoji
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Meaning & usage
What does the Hourglass Done emoji mean?
An hourglass with all the sand fallen, standing for time that has run out.
Final. All the sand has fallen, which makes it the emoji for a deadline that has already gone rather than one approaching.
How to use ⌛ naturally
Deadlines passed, patience exhausted and anything finished waiting.
Object emoji usually point to an activity or topic rather than an emotion. They work well as labels in lists, captions and announcements, where the image makes the subject easy to scan.
From standard to slang
The history of ⌛
- 2010
First defined as emoji
According to Unicode’s Emoji Versions data, Hourglass Done was first defined as emoji in Emoji 0.6, dated 2010. That label is retrospective: Unicode applied it later to the early mobile core it inherited from the Japanese carriers.
- Before the keyboard
Its visual roots
An upright hourglass with the sand all in the lower bulb. It is the older of the two characters and was a text symbol long before it became an emoji.
- Today
How its use evolved
Deadlines passed, patience exhausted and anything finished waiting.
Dates follow Unicode’s official Emoji Versions chart. Versions before Emoji 1.0 are labelled retrospectively. See the history of emoji.
In conversation
Examples of ⌛ in messages
These examples show the emoji in complete messages, where the words make its intended tone easier to read.
That was the cut-off, unfortunately ⌛
Time is up on the early rate ⌛
Waited as long as I reasonably could ⌛
When to use it
Using ⌛ clearly
Deadlines passed, patience exhausted and anything finished waiting. It lands as hourglass done emoji or time up emoji when the rest of the message supports that reading, and it is the surrounding words that do the deciding — so in a sensitive, professional or cross-cultural conversation, say the thing outright as well.
Common questions
About the hourglass done emoji
What does ⌛ mean in a text message?
An hourglass with all the sand fallen, standing for time that has run out. Final. All the sand has fallen, which makes it the emoji for a deadline that has already gone rather than one approaching.
Is ⌛ always positive?
Not always. Its usual readings are hourglass done emoji, time up emoji, ⌛ meaning, and irony or the relationship between the people can flip any of them.
Why does ⌛ look different on another device?
U+231B identifies the emoji; the picture is a font, drawn separately by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. Only the artwork changes, never the character.
How do I copy and paste the hourglass done emoji?
Use the copy button at the top of this page. ⌛ is a character, not an image, so it pastes into messages, captions and filenames as ordinary text.
When was the hourglass done emoji introduced?
Unicode’s Emoji Versions data first records ⌛ as emoji in Emoji 0.6, dated 2010. Early emoji version numbers can be retrospective, so this date describes its place in the standardised emoji set rather than the first-ever appearance of the underlying symbol.
For developers
⌛ in code
Every value below is generated from the character itself, so it stays correct even where a file encoding cannot hold the emoji directly.
| Format | Value | When to use it | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode | U+231B | The standard reference. Use it to search a character map or a spec. | |
| HTML (hex) | ⌛ | For HTML and XML. Safe in files that are not saved as UTF-8. | |
| HTML (decimal) | ⌛ | The same reference in decimal. Both render identically. | |
| CSS | \231B | For the content property. Keep the quotes around the whole value. | |
| JavaScript | \u{231B} | A string-literal escape. Needs the u flag inside a regular expression. | |
| URL-encoded | %E2%8C%9B | Percent-encoded UTF-8, for query strings and API requests. |
Reference card
Emoji details
- Unicode
- U+231B
- Category
- Objects & Tech
- Also known as
- hourglass done emojitime up emoji⌛ meaning
Put it in a message
When ⌛ is the right choice
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