Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - hour

~ n 1 60 MINUTES a period of 60 minutes. There are 24 hours in a day  (The flight to Moscow takes just over three hours. | Karen is paid $10 an hour. | in an hour/in an hour's time (=an hour from now))  (I'll be back in an hour. | an hour's work/wait etc)  (The system crashed and I lost three hours' work | pay/charge by the hour (=pay or charge someone according to the number of hours it takes to do something)) 2 »DISTANCE« the distance you can travel in an hour  (be an hour from)  (We're only an hour by car from New York. | an hour's drive/walk etc (=a distance that takes an hour to drive, walk etc))  (It's only about an hour's drive from here, isn't it?) 3 »TIMES FOR BUSINESS/WORK ETC« hours a fixed period of time in the day when a particular activity, business etc happens  (hours of business 9.00 - 5.00 | office/opening hours (=when an office or shop is working or open) | visiting hours (=when you can visit someone in hospital) | out of hours BrE (=before or after the usual working or business hours) | after hours (=after the time when a business, especially a bar, is supposed to close) | lunch/dinner hour (=the period in the middle of the day when people stop work for a meal))  (- see also rush hour, happy hour) 4 work long/regular etc hours if you work long, regular etc hours, the period that you work is longer than usual, always the same etc  (the long hours worked by hospital doctors | work unsocial hours (=work in the evenings so that you cannot spend time with family or friends) | work all the hours that God sends (=work all the time that you can)) 5 »TIME OF DAY« often plural a particular period or point of time during the day or night  (the small hours (=the period between midnight and two or three o'clock in the morning))  (The celebrations went on into the small hours. | the hours of darkness/daylight literary)  (Few people dared to venture out during the hours of darkness. | at this hour spoken (=used when you are surprised or annoyed by something happening too late at night or too early in the morning))  (Who can be calling at this late hour? | unearthly/ungodly hour spoken (=used when you are complaining about how early or late something is))  (We had to get up at some ungodly hour to catch a plane. | at all hours (of the day or night) spoken (=at any time))  (Our neighbours play loud music at all hours. | till all hours spoken (=until an unreasonably late time at night))  (She's up till all hours studying. | keep late/regular etc hours (=go to bed and get up at late, regular etc times))  (- see also waking hours/life/day etc waking) 6 »LONG TIME« a) hours informal a long time or a time that seems long  (We had to spend hours filling in forms. | I've been waiting here for hours. | hours and hours (=a very long time))  (a really boring lecture - and it just went on for hours and hours) b) hour after hour continuously for many hours 7 within hours of only a few hours after doing something or after something happening  (Within hours of landing, troops had started to advance inland.) 8 »O'CLOCK« the time of the day when a new hour starts, for example one o'clock, two o'clock etc  (strike the hour (=if a clock strikes the hour, it rings, to show that it is one o'clock, seven o'clock etc) | (every hour) on the hour (=every hour at six o'clock, seven o'clock etc))  (There are flights to Boston every hour on the hour.) 9 1300/1530/1805 hours used to give the time in official or military reports and orders 10 by the hour/from hour to hour if a situation is changing by the hour or from hour to hour, it is changing very quickly and very often  (This financial crisis is growing more serious by the hour.) 11 »POINT IN HISTORY OR SB'S LIFE« an important moment or period in history or in your life  (finest hour)  (This was our country's finest hour. | sb's hour of need/glory etc (=a time when someone needs help, is very successful etc))  (Don't desert me in my hour of need.) 12 of the hour of a particular time, especially the present time  (one of the burning questions of the hour | the hero/man of the hour (=someone who does something very brave, is very successful etc at a particular time))  (- see also the eleventh hour eleventh (2), hourly, zero hour)