Bedtime
//ˈbɛdtaɪm// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The time or hour at which one retires to bed in order to sleep. countable, uncountable
"I read every evening, sometimes late into the night, with the help of kerosene lamps, often secretly, past my bedtime."
- 2 the time you go to bed wordnet
Example
More examples"Time for a hot bath, and then it's bedtime."
Etymology
From Middle English bedtyme, bed-tyme, bedetyme, bedde tyme, equivalent to bed + time. Compare earlier Old English bedtīd (“bedtime”). Compare also West Frisian bêdtiid (“bedtime”), Dutch bedtijd (“bedtime”), Saterland Frisian Bädegungenstied (“bedtime”, literally “bed-goings-time”), German Low German Beddgahnstied, Bettgahnstiet (“bedtime”, literally “bed-goings-time”).
Related phrases
More for "bedtime"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.