Time limit

A time limit or deadline is a narrow field of time, or a particular point in time, by which an objective or task must be accomplished. Once that time has passed, the item may be considered overdue (e.g., for work projects or school assignments). In the case of work assignments or projects that are not completed by the deadline, this may adversely affect the employee's performance rating. In the case of school assignments, essays or reports submitted after the deadline, marks or grades may be deducted from the student's assessment.There is only indirect evidence that the term deadline in the sense of 'due date' may be connected with the use of the term in prison camps during the American Civil War, when it referred to a physical line or boundary beyond which prisoners were shot. In fact, the term is no longer found in print by the end of the 19th century, but it soon resurfaces in writing in 1917 as a printing term for 'a guideline on the bed of a printing press beyond which text will not print'. Three years later, the term is found in print in the sense of 'time limit' in the closely connected publishing industry, indicating the time after which material would not make it into a newspaper or periodical.