five o'clock shadow

or five-o'clock shadow

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See synonyms for five o'clock shadow on Thesaurus.com

noun

the rather dark stubble that appears on a man's face some hours after shaving, typically in the late afternoon if he shaved in the morning.

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Origin of five o'clock shadow

First recorded in 1935–40

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use five o'clock shadow in a sentence

France 24 is providing live, round-the-clock coverage of both scenes as they progress.
LIVE Coverage of the Paris Terror Attacks||January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“It was Stephen Hawking and five other Nobel laureates,” Krauss recalled.
Sleazy Billionaire’s Double Life Featured Beach Parties With Stephen Hawking|M.L. Nestel|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The Big Five banks dubbed too big to fail, are 35 percent bigger than they were when the meltdown was triggered.
Sen. Warren’s Main Street Crusade to Pressure Clinton|Eleanor Clift|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The judges who handle arraignments at criminal court in all five boroughs have a small fraction of their usual caseloads.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST

After four or five months of casual interaction, they realized they both had lost a young parent to cancer.
Everyone at This Dinner Party Has Lost Someone|Samantha Levine|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Before Ripperda could unclasp his lips to reply, the stranger had opened the door, and passed through it like a gliding shadow.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
The night wore on, and the clock downstairs was striking the hour of two when she suddenly awakened.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
I presume the twenty-five or thirty miles at this end is unhealthy, even for natives, but it surely need not be so.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
Sleek finds it far harder work than fortune-making; but he pursues his Will-o'-the-Wisp with untiring energy.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
The clock struck ten, and clerks poured in faster than ever, each one in a greater perspiration than his predecessor.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2)|Charles Dickens

British Dictionary definitions for five o'clock shadow

five-o'clock shadow

noun

beard growth visible late in the day on a man's shaven face

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