curfew

Noun

curfew (plural curfews)

1. Any regulation requiring people to be off the streets and in their homes by a certain time.
   • The city has been reported calm after a curfew was imposed.
   • Curfews have been curbing / The end of liberty1981, “This Is Radio Clash”, performed by The Clash
2. A regulation requiring loud or disruptive activities such as concerts and sporting events to end by a certain time.
   • The curfew was introduced in 2009, when the All England Club installed a retractable roof on Centre Court. That meant that play could go on later at a tournament that previously ran to the sun’s clock, but local residents — and their council — did not want fans streaming past their houses in the...2025 July 7, Charlie Eccleshare, “Wimbledon’s curfew rule explained: The tennis Grand Slam with an early bedtime”, in The Athletic
3. The time when such restriction begins.
4. A signal indicating this time.
5. A fireplace accessory designed to bank a fire by completely covering the embers.
6. (historical) A regulation in feudal Europe by which fires had to be covered up or put out at a certain fixed time in the evening, marked by the ringing of an evening bell.
7. The evening bell, which continued to be rung in many towns after the regulation itself became obsolete.
   • I have my lodging neere unto a tower, where both evening and morning a very great bell doth chime Ave marie and Cover-few, which jangling doth even make the tower to shake […]., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.95