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book of hours

American  
Or Book of Hours

noun

  1. a book containing the prescribed order of prayers, readings from Scripture, and rites for the canonical hours.


book of hours British  

noun

  1. (often capitals) a book used esp in monasteries during the Middle Ages that contained the prayers and offices of the canonical hours

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

As she tells it, Marguerite Steed Hoffman fell for a medieval book of hours at once, at the 2010 European Fine Arts Fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

From New York Times • Feb. 29, 2024

Step inside the world’s most beautiful calendar, as Jason Farago, a critic for The Times, guides you through an invaluable 15th-century book of hours, in which science, religion and art coalesce.

From New York Times • Apr. 17, 2023

The star of its stunning exhibition of mostly 16th-century French material is a book of hours once owned by Francis I of France.

From New York Times • Jan. 27, 2011

Like its predecessors, this book of hours by an anonymous 15th century French master is a magnificent work of art.

From Time Magazine Archive

At last, she opened her book of hours and slipped the paper into a sort of secret pocket contrived between the leather of the binding and the parchment that covered it.

From The Hollow Needle; Further adventures of Arsene Lupin by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander

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