eleventh hour
6
5.2
- idiom
- /ɪˈlɛvənθ ˈaʊər/
:
último momento
- We submitted our proposal at the eleventh hour, just before the deadline.
Examples
-
There, at the eleventh hour, I finally developed an interest in pie baking.
Fiction book (2000) -
An invitation to Greece scheduled for the very last day of the millennium was rescinded at the eleventh hour by a seafarers' union unwilling to challenge powerful Greek shipowners.
Academic text (2002) -
At the eleventh hour, he became the president we had been looking for.
Blog text (29) -
Last year's agreement on the payroll tax cut extension happened at the eleventh hour.
Blog text (2) -
But this number was only reached after an eleventh-hour phone calling campaign by professors and administrators.
Blog text (18) -
All of whom rallied and came through at the eleventh hour.
-
You can't do this at the eleventh hour.
-
Budgets and debt ceiling votes will be pushed to the eleventh hour.
Blog text (21) -
This comes as another blow to the already beleaguered medical center as eleventh-hour talks broke down today between doctors and hospital administration.
-
Meanwhile, some corporations that should have stepped up to the plate gave token contributions at the eleventh hour.
Blog text (15)
Synonyms
240
1.9
The latest time before something must happen
101
2.5
Happening just before the last possible moment to act
3
4.5
The last moment before a deadline when it is almost too late
Happens just in time before it is too late
Antonyms
How Late
Surface Forms
Morphology
eleventh + hour
Although the constituents 'eleventh' (an ordinal) and 'hour' (a time unit) point to a late/specific time, the conventional sense 'the latest possible moment' is a culturally established, figurative use rather than a straightforward compositional meaning. A B1 learner who knows the words might guess it refers to a late time but would not reliably infer the idiomatic 'last-minute' sense without prior exposure, so it is partially but not fully transparent.
Etymology
Eleventh hour may come from an old image of a clock with twelve hours: the eleventh hour is the hour just before the last one. So it means 'the latest possible time', when something happens at the very last moment.