Definition of curfew in English:
curfew
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noun
1A regulation requiring people to remain indoors between specified hours, typically at night.
‘a dusk-to-dawn curfew’- ‘the whole area was immediately placed under curfew’
- ‘The lists of candidates, their names and manifestos, were all but invisible and a strict curfew was imposed.’
- ‘All exits from the city were totally blocked from the morning and an indefinite curfew was imposed from 6pm.’
- ‘As with many parks around the city, a midnight curfew is imposed.’
- ‘We saw them lifting an overnight curfew that had been in place also since April when the old regime fell.’
- ‘Police are also patrolling the city and have slapped a night-time curfew on the city.’
- ‘He was given a conditional sentence, which avoids jail time, but enforces daily curfews in his home.’
- ‘Youth justices put him under a three-month nightly curfew and on a nine-month supervision order aimed at tackling his alcoholism.’
- ‘Police introduced an overnight curfew on Thursday in Colombo and have tightened security measures throughout city.’
- ‘Today it is still heavily guarded, with numerous checkpoints and a nighttime curfew.’
- ‘He took full 24 hours before doing so and clamping curfew in some areas.’
- ‘He was posted in the marketplace area of the city, enforcing the curfew.’
- ‘He enforced strict rules: a nightly curfew and a mandate to earn top grades in high school.’
- ‘Together they agree to break the curfew to show me how people are coping.’
- ‘Ever since I broke curfew, I showed no promise of learning my lesson.’
- ‘There was an overnight curfew and a requirement to report twice a day to the authorities.’
- ‘All she needed was a midnight curfew and glass slippers and she would be set.’
- ‘The standoff ceased with the advent of the midnight curfew.’
- ‘They arrested something like 300 people last night for curfew violations.’
- ‘He gets half way across town before the cop patrolling his neighborhood pulls him over for curfew violation.’
- ‘There is normally a 7pm - 7am curfew and prisoners are monitored with an electronic tagging device.’
- 1.1The hour designated as the beginning of a curfew.‘to be out after curfew without permission was to risk punishment’
- ‘The camp compensated by making a later curfew for those on time off.’
- ‘He walks further until one o'clock in the morning (past the curfew for apprentices) and ends up in the graveyard in Copp's Hill.’
- ‘My curfew was usually midnight, but not for dates.’
- ‘When Mom and Dad are home, our curfew is midnight.’
- ‘Your curfew is at midnight unless otherwise noted.’
- ‘Her parents had given her a curfew of midnight, so she had heaps of time.’
- ‘It was past my curfew and I could tell that I looked panicked because of the face Jake was making.’
- ‘You remember the feeling: You had a midnight curfew, but your friends were free to roam wild until dawn.’
- ‘By that time, the male was already at his home, having managed to cook up an excuse for breaking the midnight curfew.’
- ‘Do you remember how mad they were when we were an hour past curfew last year?’
- ‘The neighbours, he recalls, allowed him to play until a daily curfew of 10 pm.’
- ‘And even if I returned past the curfew, my parents didn't mind too much.’
- ‘‘Yes,’ he said softly, nuzzling the back of her neck as the final bell rang in the distance, marking curfew.’
- ‘He had regained her trust the night before, after telling her of numerous time that she had let him back into the boarding house when he had returned after curfew.’
- 1.2A daily signal indicating the start of curfew.‘they had to return before the curfew sounded’
- ‘It wasn't long until the curfew bang sounded and we were shuffled out once again.’
- ‘The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell.’
Pronunciation
Origin
Middle English (denoting a regulation requiring people to extinguish fires at a fixed hour in the evening, or a bell rung at that hour): from Old French cuevrefeu, from cuvrir ‘to cover’ + feu ‘fire’. The current sense dates from the late 19th century.
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