Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of the 24 equal parts of a day.
  • noun One of the points on a timepiece marking off 12 or 24 successive intervals of 60 minutes, from midnight to noon and noon to midnight or from midnight to midnight.
  • noun The time of day indicated by a 12-hour clock.
  • noun The time of day determined on a 24-hour basis.
  • noun A unit of measure of longitude or right ascension, equal to 15° or 1/24 of a great circle.
  • noun A customary or fixed time.
  • noun A set or customary period of time for a specified activity.
  • noun A particular time.
  • noun A significant time.
  • noun The present time.
  • noun The work that can be accomplished in an hour.
  • noun The distance that can be traveled in an hour.
  • noun A single session of a school day or class.
  • noun A credit hour.
  • noun Ecclesiastical The canonical hours.
  • idiom (long hours) A longer than usual or customary period of time for a given activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A particular time; a fixed or appointed time; a set season: as, the hour of death.
  • noun The time marked or indicated by a timepiece; the particular time of day: as, what is the hour? at what hour shall we meet?
  • noun The twenty-fourth part of a civil day, or the twelfth part of a natural day or night.
  • noun plural Set times of prayer; the canonical hours (which see, under canonical).
  • noun The offices or services prescribed for the canonical hours, or a book containing them. See book of hours, below.
  • noun In Greek myth, one of the Horæ or Hours, the goddesses of the seasons and guardians of the gates of heaven.
  • noun The hour reckoned from sunrise as the beginning of the day.
  • noun In astronomy and geography, an angular measure of right ascension or longitude, being the twenty-fourth part of a great circle of the sphere, or fifteen degrees.
  • noun One hour in a shop. In many technical schools students are required to spend a certain number of hours in workshops. These are called shop-hours, to distinguish them from the hours spent in the recitation-room.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The twenty-fourth part of a day; sixty minutes.
  • noun The time of the day, as expressed in hours and minutes, and indicated by a timepiece; as, what is the hour? At what hour shall we meet?
  • noun Fixed or appointed time; conjuncture; a particular time or occasion
  • noun (R. C. Ch.) Certain prayers to be repeated at stated times of the day, as matins and vespers.
  • noun A measure of distance traveled.
  • noun after the time appointed for one's regular labor.
  • noun See under Canonical.
  • noun (Astron.) the angle between the hour circle passing through a given body, and the meridian of a place.
  • noun (Astron.) A small brass circle attached to the north pole of an artificial globe, and divided into twenty-four parts or hours. It is used to mark differences of time in working problems on the globe.
  • noun the hand or index which shows the hour on a timepiece.
  • noun (Astron.), (Dialing) A line on which the shadow falls at a given hour; the intersection of an hour circle which the face of the dial.
  • noun the plate of a timepiece on which the hours are marked; the dial.
  • noun the twenty-fourth part of a sidereal day.
  • noun the twenty-fourth part of a solar day.
  • noun the early hours of the morning, as one o'clock, two o'clock, etc.
  • noun to be regular in going to bed early.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A time period of sixty minutes; one twenty-fourth of a day.
  • noun A season, moment, time or stound.
  • noun poetic The time.
  • noun military, in the plural Used after a two-digit hour and a two-digit minute to indicate time.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French houre, from Latin hōra, from Greek hōrā, season, time; see yēr- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English houre, oure, from Anglo-Norman houre, from Old French houre, (h)ore, from Latin hōra ("hour"), from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hōrā, "any time or period, whether of the year, month, or day"), from Proto-Indo-European *yer-, *yor- (“year, season”). Akin to Old English ġēar ("year"). Displaced native Middle English stunde, stound ("hour, moment, stound") (from Old English stund ("hour, time, moment")), Middle English ȝetid, tid ("hour, time") (from Old English *ġetīd, compare Old Saxon getīd ("hour, time").

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Examples

  • You should do an hour of the show each time instead of just half hour*

    DO COME!!!! Joanna Bogle 2009

  • Peter and John went to the Temple (Acts iii. 1) _at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour_.

    The Prayer Book Explained Percival Jackson

  • In one hour the transformation was complete, and it was _in that hour_ that the child developed the outward signs of the

    The Blue Germ Maurice Nicoll 1918

  • He said the DOT's long-term goal is to shave an hour from the 3 ½-hour trip between Seattle and Portland, which would make rail travel more competitive with driving.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • But this is the hour of the power of darkness; this is your hour».

    Spero News author unknown 2010

  • But this is the hour of the power of darkness; this is your hour».

    Spero News author unknown 2010

  • Today, with 6 hour £35 PC games that reviews say is fine and other 12-15 hour games that are now 'standard' and the odd 30 hour+ game that is now seen as 'exceptional' we see PC gaming getting to a low point.

    Computer And Video Games 2009

  • Just in case you forgot I love it because I am a night person and like to sleep until nine every morning and rush hour is a word not associated with getting to work at noon or going home at nine.

    Archive 2004-01-01 Ed 2004

  • Just in case you forgot I love it because I am a night person and like to sleep until nine every morning and rush hour is a word not associated with getting to work at noon or going home at nine.

    All we need is Blog? Ed 2004

  • HH: This hour is a special hour of the Hugh Hewitt Show.

    Media 2009

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