📒 60 minutes; one of the 24 parts that a day is divided into
- I spent an hour on the phone.
- It will take about an hour to get there.
- It usually takes me two hours to walk there.
📒 a period of about an hour, used for a particular purpose
- I spent my lunch hour shopping.
📒 a fixed period of time during which people work, an office is open, etc.
- Opening hours are from 10 to 6 each day.
- Most people in this kind of job tend to work long hours.
- during office, business, etc. hours The library is open during normal working hours.
📒 a long time
- It took hours getting there.
- It took us hours to find out what was wrong.
- ‘How long did it last?’ ‘Oh, hours and hours.’
📒 a particular point in time
- You can't turn him away at this hour of the night.
- The hour had come for us to leave.
📒 the time when something important happens
- This was often thought of as the country's finest hour.
- She thought her last hour had come.
- Don't desert me in my hour of need.
📒 the time when it is exactly 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, etc.
- The clock struck the hour.
- ten minutes past the hour
- on the hour There's a bus every hour on the hour
📒 used when giving the time according to the 24-hour clock, usually in military or other official language
- The first missile was launched at 2300 hours (= at 11 p.m.). This is pronounced ‘23 hundred hours’.
📒 any time, especially a time that is not usual or suitable
- He's started staying out till all hours (= until very late at night).
- She thinks she can call me at all hours of the day and night.
📒 at the last possible moment; just in time
📒 very early, especially when this is annoying
- The job involved getting up at some unearthly hour to catch the first train.
📒 very early or very late and therefore annoying
- I apologize for calling you at this ungodly hour.
📒 the time when you have to do something difficult or unpleasant
- I’d better go and see the dentist—I can’t put off the evil hour any longer.
- If you keep on borrowing, you are only postponing the evil day when you have to pay it all back.
📒 if you keep regular, strange, etc. hours, the times at which you do things (especially getting up or going to bed) are regular, strange, etc.
📒 to spend time doing something that is not important while you are waiting for something else to happen
- We killed time playing cards.
📒 the period of time very early in the morning, soon after midnight
- We worked well into the small hours.
- The fighting began in the early hours of Saturday morning.
- The party continued well into the early hours.