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ones hour

 - 3 dictionary results

hour

  [ouuhr, ou-er]
Use ones hour in a Sentence
–noun
1. a period of time equal to one twenty-fourth of a mean solar or civil day and equivalent to 60 minutes: He slept for an hour.
2. any specific one of these 24 periods, usually reckoned in two series of 12, one series from midnight to noon and the second from noon to midnight, but sometimes reckoned in one series of 24, from midnight to midnight: He slept for the hour between 2 and 3 a.m. The hour for the bombardment was between 1300 and 1400.
3. any specific time of day; the time indicated by a timepiece: What is the hour?
4. a short or limited period of time: He savored his hour of glory.
5. a particular or appointed time: What was the hour of death? At what hour do you open?
6. a customary or usual time: When is your dinner hour?
7. the present time: the man of the hour.
8. hours,
a. time spent in an office, factory, or the like, or for work, study, etc.: The doctor's hours were from 10 to 4. What an employee does after hours is his or her own business.
b. customary time of going to bed and getting up: to keep late hours.
c. (in the Christian church) the seven stated times of the day for prayer and devotion.
d. the offices or services prescribed for these times.
e. a book containing them.
9. distance normally covered in an hour's traveling: We live about an hour from the city.
10. Astronomy. a unit of measure of right ascension representing 15°, or the twenty-fourth part of a great circle.
11. a single period, as of class instruction or therapeutic consultation, usually lasting from 40 to 55 minutes. Compare clock-hour.
12. Education. Also called credit hour. one unit of academic credit, usually representing attendance at one scheduled period of instruction per week throughout a semester, quarter, or term.
13. the Hours, Classical Mythology. the Horae.
–adjective
14. of, pertaining to, or noting an hour.
—Idiom
15. one's hour,
a. Also, one's last hour. the instant of death: The sick man knew that his hour had come.
b. any crucial moment.
Origin:
1175–1225; ME (h)oure < AF; OF (h)ore < L hōra < Gk hrā time, season

Related forms:
hourless, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

hour 
c.1250, from O.Fr. hore "one-twelfth of a day" (sunrise to sunset), from L. hora "hour, time, season," from Gk. hora "any limited time," used of day, hour, season, year; cognate O.E. gear "year" (see year). Greeks borrowed the notion of dividing the day into hours from the Babylonians, but the Babylonian hour was one-twelfth of the whole day and thus twice as long as a modern hour. The Greeks divided only the period of light into 12 parts, and the Romans adopted the system from them. Night was not similarly divided till much later, and thus the period of time covered by an hour varied according to the season. In 16c. distinction sometimes was made between temporary (unequal) hours and sidereal (equal) ones. The h- has persisted in this word despite not being pronounced since Roman times. Replaced O.E. tid, lit. "time," and stund "period of time." Hourglass is from 1515.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Science Dictionary
hour   (our)  Pronunciation Key 

  1. A unit of time equal to one of the 24 equal parts of a day; 60 minutes. ◇ A sidereal hour is 1/24 of a sidereal day, and a mean solar hour is 1/24 of a mean solar day. See more at sidereal time, solar time.

  2. A unit of measure of longitude or right ascension, equal to 15° or 1/24 of a great circle.


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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