| 释义 |
hour|aʊə(r)|
Forms: 3–4 ure, (hure), 3–5 oure, 4 ore, vure, hor, 4–5 owre, 4–6 our, hore, 4–7 howr(e, houre, 5 oware, heure, 6 ower(e, howere, 6–7 hower, 7 hoore, 4– hour.
[a. OF. ure, ore, later hure, hore, h)eure, AF. houre, mod.F. heure, = Pr. h)ora, It. ora, Sp., Pg. hora:—L. hōra hour, a. Gr. ὥρα season, time of day, hour. The h became mute in Romanic, and though since written in F., Sp., and Eng. has never been pronounced. (The OE. was tíd; in some uses stund.)]
1. a. A space of time containing sixty minutes; the twenty-fourth part of a civil day.
Formerly the hours were commonly reckoned as each equal to one-twelfth of the natural day or night, whatever its length (called planetary, temporary, or unequal hours); the equal hours were sometimes distinguished as equinoctial, being each equal to a temporary hour at the equinoxes. sidereal hour, solar hour, 24th part of a sidereal, or solar, day.
As with other nouns of time, the genitive is freely used: e.g. an hour's space, time, work, wages, sermon, notice, etc.
c1250Old Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 34 Þos laste on ure habbeþ i-travailed. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 23 Þe foure & tuenty houres he spended in holy life. 1382Wyclif John xi. 9 Wher ther ben not twelue ouris of the day? [Ags. Gosp. Hu ne synt twelf tida þæs dæᵹes?]. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 37 Late hym ben stepid .ij. or .iij. owrys in clene Water. 1548Hall Chron., Hen. V 50 Thus this battaile continued .iii. long houres. Ibid., Hen. VIII 37 b, What number..they were able to make within an houres warnynge. 1561Eden Arte Nauig. ii. xiv. 40 The houre naturall or equall, is a .24. parte of the day naturall... The artificial or temperall houre, is a twelfth parte of the daye arcke or the nyght arcke. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. ii. 121, I haue an houres talke in store for you. 1607–12Bacon Ess., Youth & Age (Arb.) 256 A man that is yong in yeares maie be old in howers, if he have lost noe tyme. 1674Moxon Tutor Astron. iv. (ed. 3) 129 Astrologers divide the Artificial day (be it long or short) into 12 equal parts, and the Night into 12 equal parts: these parts they call Planetary Hours. 1777Sheridan Sch. Scand. ii. ii, She's six-and-fifty if she's an hour! 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §339 It might be applied..on an hour's notice. 1887Rider Haggard Jess xv, On he went, hour after hour.
b. In pl. (rarely sing.) with numeral, expressing the number of hours since midnight or noon, and thus denoting a particular time of the day (sense 3): as ten hours = ten o'clock (obs., chiefly Sc.). In pl. with numerals rendered in figures (followed by those of minutes), expressing the number of hours since midnight (chiefly in the armed services and in passenger timetables). Cf. hundred n. and a. 1 d.
1427Sc. Acts Jas. I, c. 118 Fra ten houres to twa efter nune. c1470Henry Wallace iv. 121 Schyr Ranald come by x houris of the day. 1567Satir. Poems Reform. iii. 1 To Edinburgh about vj. houris at morne, As I was passand. c1620A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 31 At four hoores I was wryting. 1634–5Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 138 There is a sermon euery sabbath at 10 hour. 1657Edin. Kirk Sess. Reg. in Scott. Antiq. (1898) June 35 The first Bell shall ring at half-hour to seven hours on the week dayes, the second Bell at seven hours. 1681S. Colvil Whig's Supplic. i. (1710) 34 He sees what hours it is in France. 1939Punch 2 Aug. 124/1 It is 21.00 hours on the last day of our month's training. 1941Punch 21 May 486 A lorry is leaving R.M.P. at 0915 hours. 1967[see hovering vbl. n. a (ii)]. 1968A. Hammersley Weather & Life iv. 49, 6 hours G.M.T., i.e. 6 a.m. 1971R. Bucknall Trains 46 With this time scale, 6 minutes would represent six hours, or 06.00.
c. Used to denote the distance of the sun above the horizon in the morning or afternoon. U.S.
1637in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1869) IX. 66 The keeper..[is] to take the Cattle at the pen at Sun halfe an hour highe. 1683in New Hampsh. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1866) VIII. 133 At night, about sun half an hour high. 1762in Narragansett Hist. Reg. (1883–4) II. 219 We..got to the Ferry the sun about two hours high at night. 1824New Hampsh. Hist. Soc. Coll. I. 244 Though the sun was an hour above the horizon, it was now as dark as midnight. 1836Knickerbocker VIII. 352 The sun is two hours up yet. 1907M. H. Norris Veil i. 3 The sun was an hour high when he entered a narrow road overgrown with grass.
d. (orig. hour-mile.) The distance which can be traversed in an hour.
[a1646J. Gregory Posthuma (1650) 318 One Hour-Mile of a Journie upon Hors, answereth to four English Miles.] 1785G. Forster tr. Sparrman's Voy. Cape G. Hope II. 81 This place is situated at the distance of two hours (uurs) from that which we had just quitted. 1792E. Riou tr. J. van Reenen's Jrnl. Journey from Cape G. Hope p. xii, Throughout the journal the word hour is to be considered as distance, and not time. Travellers at the Cape of Good Hope reckon distance by hours: one hour being supposed equal to about a league. 1798S. H. Wilcocke tr. Stavorinus' Voy. E. Indies I. 58 A Dutch mile, which they in general call an hour, is about three miles and a half English. 1877J. C. Geikie Life & Words Christ I. 388 Three hours from Jerusalem. 1907in A. H. Anderson Reading Advts. p. xlviii a, Dulverton... 4 Hours from London, 1 Hour from Taunton and Exeter. 1970Country Life 2 July 62/1 (Advt.), Radnorshire... Kington 6½ miles. Birmingham 1½ hours. An attractive period house.
e. Used as the second element, representing ‘for one hour’, in the names of some units of measurement, as ampere-hour, horsepower-hour, kilowatt-hour, man-hour (see under the first element).
f. A unit of measure of work done.
1900Daily News 10 Jan. 8/3 It should be understood that the tailors' ‘hour’ is not one of time, but merely the word employed for an unit of calculation.
2. a. Used somewhat indefinitely for a short or limited space of time, more or less than an hour.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. xxv. 71 This hure of love to drynke so, That fleysshliche lust be al for-do. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 310 If wee looke to live, till our last day and houre, without troublesome thoughtes. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. i. 167 Sad houres seeme long. 1673Humours of Town 52 They have made Love to be the hot passion of an hour. 1789E. Darwin Bot. Gard. 47 In dreams, we cannot compare them with our previous knowledge of things, as we do in our waking hours. 1838Thirlwall Greece V. 345 In a convivial hour, when they were all conversing on the subject. 1842Tennyson Love & Duty 56–7 The slow sweet hours that bring us all things good, The slow sad hours that bring us all things ill. 1864Browning Abt Vogler x, When eternity affirms the conception of an hour.
b. pl. Stated time of occupation or duty.
185212th Rep. Col. Land & Emigr. Comm. in Parl. Papers XVIII. 151 They are not required to work ‘long hours’, five hours a day is what is required of them. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. iii, But the school hours were long and Tom's patience short. 1865Mill Pol. Econ. (ed. 6) v. xi. §12 A reduction of hours without any diminution of wages. 1878Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. 63 The employer would generally prefer long hours. 1890‘L. Falconer’ Mlle. Ixe ii. (1891) 35 Extra lessons had to be learnt, play-hours were curtailed. Mod. After office hours he goes for a ride.
c. (See quot. 1955.) Cf. children's hour (child n. 22).
1930Economist 3 May 985/1 It is argued that an advertiser who broadcasts tedious over-vulgar, or over-highbrow material in his ‘hour’ will eventually discover that he is losing money. 1955M. Reifer Dict. New Words 102/1 Hour, a scheduled radio or television feature, originally one hour long; the term now refers to any length program. 1972Daily Tel. 20 Apr. 12/5 The star of The Bob Monkhouse Comedy Hour (ITV)..is almost guaranteed to turn me off.
3. a. Each of those points of time at which the twelve successive divisions after noon or midnight, as shown by a dial or time-piece, are completed; by extension, any definite point or ‘time of day’. the eleventh hour: see eleventh.
a1300Cursor M. 8933 Ilk dai a certain hore, Þar lighted dun of heuen ture Angels. c1315Shoreham 87 At evesanges oure. 1382Wyclif Matt. xx. 6 Aboute the elleuenthe houre [1388 oure] he wente out, and foond other stondynge. c1391Chaucer Astrol. Prol., A table of the verray Moeuyng of the Mone from howre to howre. c1465Chevy Chase xxix. in Percy Reliq., It drewe to the oware off none. 1526Tindale John iv. 6 Hit was about the sixte houre. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 158 By this Compasse (the Sonne shynynge) men shall perfitly know the houre of the day. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 125 What hour o' th' day The clock does strike. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest ii, She awoke at an early hour. 1871G. Macdonald Parables, Love's Ordeal viii, The little clock rung out the hour of ten. 1882W. Ballantine Exper. I. ii. 24 Watchmen..called the hours of the night.
b. small hours: the early hours after midnight denoted by the small numbers, one, two, etc.
1836–7Dickens Sk. Boz vii. (1883) 30 He invited friends home, who used to come at ten o'clock, and begin to get happy about the small hours. 1859Farrar J. Home viii, Often beguiled by his studies into the ‘wee small’ hours of night. 1865W. G. Palgrave Arabia II. 335 Conversation is prolonged to midnight or even to the small hours.
c. pl. Habitual time of getting up and going to bed, esp. the latter; usually with such adjs. as good, regular, early, bad, late, etc.
1601Shakes. Twel. N. i. iii. 6 You must come in earlyer a nights: your Cosin, my Lady, takes great exceptions to your ill houres. a1744Pope (J. s.v. Keep), I rule the family very ill, and keep bad hours. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xi. iii, The Sun..keeps very good hours at this time of year. 1775Sheridan Rivals i. i, Their regular hours stupify me—not a fiddle nor a card after eleven! 1816Jane Austen Emma II. vii. 123, I am not fond of dinner-visiting... Late hours do not agree with us. 1821Byron Juan iii. lxvi. 36 Late hours, wine, and love are able To do not much less damage than the table. 1832L. Hunt Sir R. Esher (1850) 81, I was nearly killed with his Grace's hours. 1834W. India Sketch Bk. I. 18 The fatigues and late hours of the preceding night. 1891Mrs. S. Edwards Secret of P'cess II. xvi. 195, I keep early hours. 1970Brewer's Dict. Phr. & Fable (rev. ed.) 550/2 To keep good hours, to go home early every night; to go to bed betimes; to be punctual at one's work.
d. to (or till) all hours: late at night; after midnight.
1931Belloc Hist. Eng. IV. i. 161 She..had had him, and one, Culpepper, in her room up to all hours. 1932A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms viii. 58, I sat up to all hours trying to finish my work. 1934B. de Holthoir tr. Duhamel's News from Havre xiii. 196 She made up for lost time by sitting up till all hours of the night. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited iv. 264 She sits up to all hours with her wireless. 1961R. Chapman Father Faber viii. 161 He read till all hours and undertook heavy penances.
4. a. A definite time in general; an appointed time; an occasion. spec. of the hour: of the present hour, of the very time that is now with us; as in ‘the question of the hour’.
a1300Cursor M. 4665 His nam þai chaunged fra þat our. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 222 Seiþ Poul here þat our is now to rise fro sleep. 1490Caxton Eneydos lii. 147 The ladyes..cursed turnus and the owre in whiche he bigan first the bataylle. 1526Tindale John ii. 4 Myne houre is not yett come. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany, In the houre of death, in the daye of iudgement: Good lorde deliuer us. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 150 Sir Thomas More..whose witte even at this hower, is a wonder to all the worlde. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. ii. 16 Shee's very neere her houre. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 373 Twelve Ships were sent to the bottom, in a well-chosen hour. 1750Gray Elegy ix, The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power..Await alike th' inevitable hour. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 173 To hasten the hour of his own return. 1887Jessopp Arcady v. 136 The subject of the hour..[is] the housing of the working classes.
b. Phr. in a good (happy, etc.) hour [partly = F. à la bonne heure]: at a fortunate time; happily, fortunately: so in an evil (ill, etc.) hour. † in good hour [F. de bonne heure]: in good time, early; so † in due hour (obs.).
c1450Merlin 340 Arthur..thought that in goode houre were he born that it myght conquere. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon i. 38 In an euyll oure was he put to deth. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1294 As if a man should say, In good houre and happily may this or that come. 1620Shelton Quix. iv. xvi. II. 198 He resumes his Musick..In a good Hour, quoth Donna Clara, and then because she herself would not hear him, she stoppd her Ears with her Fingers. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 126 In a happy houre, the king..tooke notice of him. 1685Evelyn Diary 17 Sept., The next morning [we] set out for Guildford, where we ariv'd in good hour. 1689― Let. to Pepys 12 Aug., Retiring in due hour. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. i, In an ill hour..I went on board. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iv. Introd., In an evil hour I..changed my lodgings.
5. Eccl. (pl.) The prayers or offices appointed to be said at the seven stated times of the day allotted to prayer (canonical hours: see canonical 1 b); also (short for book of hours), a book containing these. Rare in sing. (The earliest recorded use, = L. horæ, OF. ures; in OE. (seofon) tída.)
a1225Ancr. R. 6 Sum is clergesse, & sum nis nout & mot te more wurchen, & an oðer wise siggen hire ures. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 97 Here messe and here matynes and many of here oures Arn don vndeuoutlych. c1400St. Alexius (Laud 622) 30 Forto seruen god almiȝth By tides and by houres. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1427 When þe oure of terce was done. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye 164 Complyn ys the Seuenthe and the laste houre of dyuyne seruyce..in the ende therof the seuen howres of dyuyne seruyce ar fulfylled. 1669Woodhead St. Teresa ii. xviii. 121 They recited their Canonical Hours. 1873Dixon Two Queens I. iii. i. 119 Illuminated hours, and golden missals. 1894Baring-Gould Deserts S. France II. 130 A nun saying her hours.
6. Mythol. (pl., with capital H, = L. Horæ, Gr. Ὧραι.) Female divinites supposed to preside over the changes of the seasons.
1634Milton Comus 986 The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours. 1751Gray Odes, Spring i, Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, Fair Venus' train, appear. 1835Thirlwall Greece vi. I. 221 The goddesses who preside over them [the seasons]—the Hours—were originally three in number. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 1286 The Hours bringing the horses to the chariot of the Sun; from the basso-relievo..by John Gibson, R.A.
7. Astr. and Geog. An angular measure of right ascension or longitude, being the 24th part of a great circle of the sphere, or 15 degrees.
[1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., Fifteen degrees of the equator answer to an hour.] 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) I. 316 The longitude..is seven hours, or one hundred and fifteen degrees from the meridian of the Canary Islands. 1877G. F. Chambers Astron. v. iii. (ed. 3) 460 Right Ascension..is..reckoned..either in angular measure..or in time, of hours, minutes, and seconds.
8. Comb.: hour-angle, Astr. the angular distance between the meridian and the declination-circle passing through a heavenly body, which is the measure of the sidereal time elapsed since its culmination; hour-bell, a bell rung every hour, or that sounds the hours; hour-book, Eccl. a book of hours (sense 5); hour-cup, a cup in a clepsydra that empties itself hourly; hour-figure, a figure denoting the hour, esp. on a dial-plate; hour-hand, the short hand of a clock or watch which indicates the hours; hour-index, an index or pointer which can be turned to any hour marked on the hour-circle of an artificial globe; hour-line, a line on a dial indicating the hour by the passage of the shadow across it; hour-long a., lasting for an hour; hour-plate, the dial-plate of a clock or watch, inscribed with figures denoting the hours; hour-stroke, one of the strokes or marks on a dial-plate indicating the hours; hour-watch, a watch indicating only the hours; hour-wheel, (a) = hour-circle 2; (b) that wheel in a clock which carries the hour-hand.
1837Penny Cycl. IX. 488 (s.v. Equatorial) The difference between the observed *hour angle and true hour angle.
1784Cowper Task v. 404 To count the *hour-bell and expect no change. 1891Pall Mall G. 15 Jan. 2/3 The hour bell in the clock-tower.
1896Daily News 28 Nov. 3/6 An *Hour book..illustrated with richly painted miniatures.
1799J. Gilchrist in Asiat. Res. V. 87 The water gradually fills the cup, and sinks it, in the space [of time] to which this *hour-cup or kutoree has previously been adjusted.
1690Leybourn Curs. Math. 703 b, Before you can calculate the *Hour distances for these Plains, there are three Requisites to be first enquired.
1675Lond. Gaz. No. 1052/4 The hour of the day, pointed at by an Archer engraved on the Plate within the *hour-figures.
1669Phil. Trans. IV. 944 In case the *Hour-hand hath..pass'd that hour. 1895Q. Rev. July 222 The two failures..put back the hour-hand of time for centuries.
1674Moxon Tutor Astron. iii. (ed. 3) 112 Turn the Globe Westwards till the *Hour-Index points at the Hour of the Night.
1593T. Fale Dialling 6 From the centre C. by these markes the *houre-line must be drawne. 1767Ferguson in Phil. Trans. LVII. 390 The true hour-lines for a horizontal dial.
1803Beddoes Hygëia xi. 91 Requiring no *hour-long harangues.
a1704Locke (J.), The characters of the *hourplate.
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 121 The hand or Index on the Dial-plate..creeping from *hour-stroke to hour-stroke.
1697Lond. Gaz. No. 3352/4 A plain *hour Watch.
1594Blundevil Exerc. iv. Introd. (ed. 7) 437 Upon this brazen Meridian is placed at the North Pole another little brazen Circle..called the *houre-wheele. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v. Pinion, The Hour Wheel [of a clock].
▸ on the hour: (a) exactly at the hour named; (b) at the beginning of every hour; freq. in every hour on the hour.
1845Times 8 Dec. 5/4 The solicitor with the plans of the Great West of England Railway..dashed up to the Great Ball turnpike-gate..just on the hour of 12. a1902B. F. Morris Pit (1903) x. 405 When six o'clock struck, she made haste to assure herself that of course she could not expect him exactly on the hour. 1975Listener 11 Dec. 788/2 News reporting on the hour..meant a great deal of repetition. 1977C. Thomas Firefox (1978) vii. 201 The sensors are being thrust up through the floe from the submarine's sail every hour, on the hour. 1991Sky Warriors I. ii. 25/2 So, we are on the southerly route, we will out-brief on the hour, power on at 10 past the hour, for a roll time of 13.31 for an EP at Baggy Point at 14.30. 2002T. Pinchuck et al. Rough Guide S. Afr. (ed. 3) 691 Open vehicles depart from here every hour on the hour to take visitors around pens and cages containing..endangered species. |