hours
1 Britishplural noun
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a period regularly or customarily appointed for work, business, etc
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one's times of rising and going to bed (esp in the phrases keep regular, irregular, or late hours )
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an indefinite period of time
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Also called (in the Roman Catholic Church): canonical hours.
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the seven times of the day laid down for the recitation of the prayers of the divine office
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the prayers recited at these times
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the hours just after midnight
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until very late
plural noun
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.
The first batch of Mag 7 earnings will also come just hours after the Federal Reserve delivers its April interest-rate decision, which is also likely to be the last led by outgoing Chair Jerome Powell.
From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026
By extending the productive hours of the factory floor and the laboratory, the bulb accelerated the pace of the Industrial Revolution.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
The figures showed that patients spent an average of 21-and-a-half hours in Altnagelvin's emergency department last month before being admitted to the Londonderry hospital.
From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026
The candidate event, named AT2025ulz, appears to be tied to a supernova that happened just hours earlier.
From Science Daily • Apr. 24, 2026
The job guarantees that I’m awake for at least eight hours at a stretch.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.