witching hour

American  

noun

• witching hours
  plural

1. midnight.

   a rendezvous at the witching hour.

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witching hour British  

noun

1. the hour at which witches are supposed to appear, usually midnight

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witching hour Idioms  

1. Midnight, as in They arrived just at the witching hour. This term alludes to older superstitions concerning a time appropriate to witchcraft and other supernatural occurrences. Shakespeare and others wrote of “the witching time of night.” The precise phrase was first recorded in 1835.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• witching hours
  plural

Etymology

Origin of witching hour

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

witching hour

Dusk is the witching hour at Accra Zoo.

From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2023

It's the closest to that witching hour we've ever been.

From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2020

Speaking of midnight, that seemed to be the witching hour for most of the guests, who were heading off to even more exclusive, no-press-allowed parties held by Madonna and Jay-Z.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2020

As Farage conducted a countdown to the witching hour, he ventured some wild “we happy few” Shakespearean claims about the significance of the moment in our island history.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 1, 2020

‘It’s full of tiny dark streets and there are very few people about in the witching hour.’

From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl