a period regularly or customarily appointed for work, business, etc
one's times of rising and going to bed (esp in the phrases keep regular, irregular, or late hours )
an indefinite period of time
Also called (in the Roman Catholic Church): canonical hours.
the seven times of the day laid down for the recitation of the prayers of the divine office
the prayers recited at these times
the hours just after midnight
until very late
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On Saturday, 24 hours after storming to victory on the Alpe d’Huez, Pogacar held such a comfortable advantage that he transformed from team leader into domestique for a day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in the early hours of Sunday that he and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt were being informed of the investigation and vowed to bring those reponsible for the "horrific act" to justice.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
Babysitting children for a few hours, however, is much different than staying at home alone for four days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
"This happened in the morning, at about 11 in the morning, and I was just waiting hours and hours for them to come back - and they didn't come back," said Peter.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
We’ve played together for countless hours, so much so that we are always in sync.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Hours before the shooting, the pier and surrounding downtown area had been flooded with hundreds of tourists and residents attending watch party events for the World Cup final.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Hours later sirens sounded again, sending troops heading toward the bunkers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Hours later, a tranche of headlines announced that the two parties had reached a settlement agreement.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
Consider Gordon Ramsay’s “24 Hours to Hell and Back,” in which the chef donned full prosthetics and makeup to trick restaurant staff into treating him like an ordinary customer.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
‘He is bold and cunning. Even now he plays a game with peril and wins a throw. Hours of my precious time he has wasted already. Down, snake!’ he said suddenly in a terrible voice.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
