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

The witching hour has begun, a disquieting moment for them to have nothing to do.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2024

Dusk is the witching hour at Accra Zoo.

From BBC • Jul. 8, 2023

It was approaching 10 p.m., the witching hour when the hotel’s restaurant, like those throughout the city, is required to close in compliance with restrictions imposed because of the countrywide rise in coronavirus cases.

From New York Times • Sep. 30, 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