curfew
Pronunciation: /ˈkəːfjuː/
noun
- a regulation requiring people to remain indoors between specified hours, typically at night: a dusk-to-dawn curfew
- the hour designated as the beginning of a curfew:
- the daily signal indicating the beginning of a curfew: they had to return before the curfew sounded
Origin:
Middle English (denoting a regulation requiring people to extinguish fires at a fixed hour in the evening, or a bell rung at that hour): from Old French cuevrefeu, from cuvrir 'to cover' + feu 'fire'. The current sense dates from the late 19th century