a race against time

also a race against the clock

an attempt to do something when there is little time to do it It was a race against time as staff members tried to keep the struggling company open.

Usage notes: sometimes used as a verb phrase: The villagers raced against time to protect their town against the flood.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Stace	-	Medieval English
Alyson	AL-i-sən	English
Gwendolen	GWEN-də-lin (English)	Welsh
Aristarchus	-	Ancient Greek (Latinized)
DilŞAd	-	Kurdish
Agnes	AG-nəs (English), AHK-nes (German), AHKH-nəs (Dutch), AHNG-nes (Swedish)	English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Ancient Greek (Latinized)