HOURS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hours mean? 

• HOURS (noun)
  The noun HOURS has 2 senses:

1. a period of time assigned for work

2. an indefinite period of time

  Familiarity information: HOURS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOURS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A period of time assigned for work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

they work long hours

Hypernyms ("hours" is a kind of...):

work time (a time period when you are required to work)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hours"):

duty period; shift; work shift (the time period during which you are at work)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An indefinite period of time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

they talked for hours

Hypernyms ("hours" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

 Context examples 

Were it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is no joke when a tall man has to take a foot off his stature for several hours on end.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I nearly met you, once, in Philadelphia, some Browning affair or other—you were to lecture, you know. My train was four hours late.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We go very slow. Maybe in two, three hours we go one mile.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The hours he spent with Ruth were maddening alike in promise and in inconclusiveness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And this puts me in mind of an amusement, wherein I spent many of my leisure hours.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“I should say that he has been dead about three hours, judging by the rigidity of the muscles,” said I.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Three dogs could not drag the sled so fast nor for so long hours as could six, and they were showing unmistakable signs of playing out.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Precious and helpful hours to Jo, for now her heart received the teaching that it needed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The wind blew him fifteen hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and he fell in the middle of Russia.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)