Hour \Hour\, n. [OE. hour, our, hore, ure, OF. hore, ore, ure,
   F. heure, L. hora, fr. Gr. ?, orig., a definite space of
   time, fixed by natural laws; hence, a season, the time of the
   day, an hour. See Year, and cf. Horologe, Horoscope.]
   1. The twenty-fourth part of a day; sixty minutes.
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   2. The time of the day, as expressed in hours and minutes,
      and indicated by a timepiece; as, what is the hour? At
      what hour shall we meet?
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   3. Fixed or appointed time; conjuncture; a particular time or
      occasion; as, the hour of greatest peril; the man for the
      hour.
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            Woman, . . . mine hour is not yet come. --John ii.
                                                  4.
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            This is your hour, and the power of darkness. --Luke
                                                  xxii. 53.
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   4. pl. (R. C. Ch.) Certain prayers to be repeated at stated
      times of the day, as matins and vespers.
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   5. A measure of distance traveled.
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            Vilvoorden, three hours from Brussels. --J. P.
                                                  Peters.
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   After hours, after the time appointed for one's regular
      labor.

   Canonical hours. See under Canonical.

   Hour angle (Astron.), the angle between the hour circle
      passing through a given body, and the meridian of a place.
      

   Hour circle. (Astron.)
      (a) Any circle of the sphere passing through the two poles
          of the equator; esp., one of the circles drawn on an
          artificial globe through the poles, and dividing the
          equator into spaces of 15[deg], or one hour, each.
      (b) A circle upon an equatorial telescope lying parallel
          to the plane of the earth's equator, and graduated in
          hours and subdivisions of hours of right ascension.
      (c) A small brass circle attached to the north pole of an
          artificial globe, and divided into twenty-four parts
          or hours. It is used to mark differences of time in
          working problems on the globe.

   Hour hand, the hand or index which shows the hour on a
      timepiece.

   Hour line.
      (a) (Astron.) A line indicating the hour.
      (b) (Dialing) A line on which the shadow falls at a given
          hour; the intersection of an hour circle which the
          face of the dial.

   Hour plate, the plate of a timepiece on which the hours are
      marked; the dial. --Locke.

   Sidereal hour, the twenty-fourth part of a sidereal day.

   Solar hour, the twenty-fourth part of a solar day.

   The small hours, the early hours of the morning, as one
      o'clock, two o'clock, etc.

   To keep good hours, to be regular in going to bed early.
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canonic \ca*non"ic\ (k[.a]*n[o^]n"[i^]k), canonical
\ca*non"ic*al\ (k[.a]*n[o^]n"[i^]*kal), a. [L. canonicus, LL.
   canonicalis, fr. L. canon: cf. F. canonique. See canon.]
   Of or pertaining to a canon; established by, or according to,
   a canon or canons. "The oath of canonical obedience."
   --Hallam.
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   2. Appearing in a Biblical canon; as, a canonical book of the
      Christian New Testament.
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   3. Accepted as authoritative; recognized.
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   4. (Math.) In its standard form, usually also the simplest
      form; -- of an equation or coordinate.
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   5. (Linguistics) Reduced to the simplest and most significant
      form possible without loss of generality; as, a canonical
      syllable pattern. Opposite of nonstandard.

   Syn: standard. [WordNet 1.5]

   6. Pertaining to or resembling a musical canon.
      [PJC]

   Canonical books, or Canonical Scriptures, those books
      which are declared by the canons of the church to be of
      divine inspiration; -- called collectively the canon.
      The Roman Catholic Church holds as canonical several books
      which Protestants reject as apocryphal.

   Canonical epistles, an appellation given to the epistles
      called also general or catholic. See Catholic epistles,
      under Canholic.

   Canonical form (Math.), the simples or most symmetrical
      form to which all functions of the same class can be
      reduced without lose of generality.

   Canonical hours, certain stated times of the day, fixed by
      ecclesiastical laws, and appropriated to the offices of
      prayer and devotion; also, certain portions of the
      Breviary, to be used at stated hours of the day. In
      England, this name is also given to the hours from 8 a. m.
      to 3 p. m. (formerly 8 a. m. to 12 m.) before and after
      which marriage can not be legally performed in any parish
      church.

   Canonical letters, letters of several kinds, formerly given
      by a bishop to traveling clergymen or laymen, to show that
      they were entitled to receive the communion, and to
      distinguish them from heretics.

   Canonical life, the method or rule of living prescribed by
      the ancient clergy who lived in community; a course of
      living prescribed for the clergy, less rigid than the
      monastic, and more restrained that the secular.

   Canonical obedience, submission to the canons of a church,
      especially the submission of the inferior clergy to their
      bishops, and of other religious orders to their superiors.
      

   Canonical punishments, such as the church may inflict, as
      excommunication, degradation, penance, etc.

   Canonical sins (Anc. Church.), those for which capital
      punishment or public penance decreed by the canon was
      inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy.
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