eleventh hour

See synonyms for eleventh hour on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the last possible moment for doing something: to change plans at the eleventh hour.

Origin of eleventh hour

1
First recorded in 1820–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use eleventh hour in a sentence

  • To go back on it, and at the eleventh hour, would proclaim him weak and vacillating, and the effect might be as Strachan said.

  • The whole being recoiled now, at the eleventh hour, as a fierce wild creature that one tries to bury alive.

  • And this eleventh-hour reminder gave him the excuse which later, in his superconscientiousness, he deemed a necessity.

    The Tigress | Anne Warner
  • Thou shalt not at the eleventh hour begin to hunt material for thy paper.

    The Complete Club Book for Women | Caroline French Benton
  • It came now, kindly, friendly and even affectionate, at the very eleventh hour.

    The Imaginary Marriage | Henry St. John Cooper

British Dictionary definitions for eleventh hour

eleventh hour

noun
    • the latest possible time; last minute

    • (as modifier): an eleventh-hour decision

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for eleventh hour

eleventh hour

The last minute: “The water bombers arrived at the eleventh hour — just in time to prevent the forest fire from engulfing the town.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with eleventh hour

eleventh hour

The latest possible time, as in We turned in our report at the eleventh hour. This term is thought to allude to the parable of the laborers (Matthew 20:1–16), in which those workers hired at the eleventh hour of a twelve-hour working day were paid the same amount as those who began in the first hour. [Early 1800s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.