Word.ws English Dictionary

beer o'clock

UK/ˌbɪə(ɹ)əˈklɒk/US/ˌbɪɹ əˈklɑk/

beer o'clock noun: the time of the first beer (or alcoholic beverage) of the day.

beer o'clock: the time of the first beer (or alcoholic beverage) of the day
Image: -jkb-, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

beer o'clock (uncountable)

  1. (humorous, slang) The time of the first beer (or alcoholic beverage) of the day.
    • Pack an esky with ice-cold bottles of Cooper's Green Label and head down to Holloways Beach, just north of Cairns, around beer o'clock on a Friday afternoon.1999 February 22, Christopher Somerville, The Observer
    • He let her go and stood up. "I also believe it's beer o'clock. You want some iced tea?"1999 April 6, Stephen King, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN; Pocket Books paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, May 2017, →ISBN, page 84
  2. (humorous, slang) Time for a beer (the first of the day or otherwise).
    • Questioner: What time is it? Answerer: It's beer o'clock.
    • Calling at Stalybridge, I cast one eye at the refreshment rooms and one eye at my watch, but 'beer o'clock' it isn't! Besides, I have a long way to travel!2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 58

Examples of beer o'clock in a sentence

  • One big rule that we never ever break is to open a can of ale before beer o'clock.2006, Arthur J. Binks, “Santa Cruz”, in Wine, Women and Sailing, Cambridge: Vanguard Press, →ISBN, page 89:
  • When Hal woke up he decided it was beer o'clock and had the girls' permission to wander down the road for a few pints before tea.2013, Dave Lewis, chapter 62, in Raising Skinny Elephants, [Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales]: Ponty Press, →ISBN, page 231:

Questions about beer o'clock

What does beer o'clock mean?
Beer o'clock means the time of the first beer (or alcoholic beverage) of the day.
How do you use beer o'clock in a sentence?
One big rule that we never ever break is to open a can of ale before beer o'clock.
What part of speech is beer o'clock?
Beer o'clock is a noun.
How do you pronounce beer o'clock?
Beer o'clock is pronounced /ˌbɪə(ɹ)əˈklɒk/ (UK).

Words near beer o'clock in the dictionary

  1. beer muscles
  2. beer mustard
  3. beer mustards
  4. beer nut
  5. beer nuts
  6. beer o'clock
  7. beer paddle
  8. beer paddles
  9. beer parlor
  10. beer parlors
  11. beer parlour

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beer o'clock (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-beer o'clock.ogg.

Cite this entry: “beer o'clock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beer_o%27clock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.