witching hour

American  

noun

1. midnight.

   a rendezvous at the witching hour.

---

witching hour British  

noun

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

---

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of witching hour

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

Henry Cavill is going from “The Witcher” to the witching hour: The actor is expecting his first child with entertainment executive Natalie Viscuso, The Times has confirmed.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2024

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

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

She longed to duck underneath them and lean out of the window to see what the world looked like now that the witching hour was at hand.

From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl