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Glite Dictionary
beer o'clock

beer o'clock

1 9.5
A time after work or at a social event when people drink beer
  • noun
  • Slang
translation icon : hora de la cerveza
  • We decided to meet up at the pub because it's beer o'clock on Friday evenings.

Examples

  • Sure feels like beer o'clock.

    Hell or High Water (2016)

  • When the clock strikes five, it's officially beer o'clock for us.

  • It's beer o'clock.

    Memento (2000)

  • After a long day at work, I always look forward to relaxing because it's beer o'clock.

Synonyms

drinkin'
vsbeer o'clock
  • Informal
4 9.6

A casual gathering where people drink alcohol

is a fixed informal time to begin a casual drink rather than a session
wine o'clock
vsbeer o'clock
  • Slang
8.9

A time in the evening for relaxing and drinking wine

is for after work or social moments rather than quiet evening relaxation

Surface Forms

beer o'clock singular
beer o'clocks plural

Morphology

beer + o'clock

The phrase combines 'beer' (the drink) with 'o'clock' (a way to name an hour), so its meaning ‘a suitable time for drinking beer’ is directly inferable from the constituents. Although idiomatically playful, the compositional logic is transparent and cross-linguistically paralleled (e.g. ‘beer time’), so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely understand it.

Etymology

The phrase beer o'clock comes from putting beer together with o'clock, the usual way to name a time. People joke that the clock is showing a time to 'drink beer' or 'relax', so today it means an informal 'time to relax' after work.