curfewnoun/ˈkɜː.fjuː/

• 1

  Any regulation requiring people to be off the streets and in their homes by a certain time.

  • Curfews have been curbing / The end of liberty
  • Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
• 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 early hours.
• 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

  historicalA 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 […].