witching hour
/ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊ(ə)ɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.34 in modern English
24
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought to be more likely to occur; the dead of night.
Literary
noun
A time of day, usually in the early evening, when babies and young children are more fretful and likely to cry or fuss.
noun
The final hour of trading each month during which certain stock options expire, leading to a higher trading volume and greater price volatility.
noun
The hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons.
Example Sentences
- "I wanted to get home before the witching hour."
- "Tis novv the very vvitching time of night, / VVhen Churchyards yavvne, and hell it ſelfe breakes out / Contagion to this vvorld: […]"
- "A party of his friends had met in the evening to talk over his merits, and to drink, in Scottish phrase, his Bonallie. While, about the witching hour, they were crowning a solemn bumper to his health, a figure burst into the room, muffled in a seaman's cloak and travelling cap covered with snow, and distinguishable only by the sharpness and ardour of the tone with which he exclaimed, "Dash it, boys, here I am again!""
- "[T]he Penzance train is shown as non-stop to Plymouth in the down direction, but in the up as being prepared to pick up sleeping car passengers at Newton Abbot, Exeter and Taunton (the two last-mentioned at the witching hours of 2.42 and 3.25 a.m.) and also to set down at Reading."
- "Perhaps, she told herself, this was what they called the witching hour. The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves."
- "Genie let out of the bottle / It is now the witching hour / Murderers, you're murderers / We are not the same as you"
Etymology
From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by William Shakespeare (1564–1616): see the quotation.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊ(ə)ɹ/
- British English: /ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/