eleventh hour

Other forms: eleventh hours

Things that happen at the eleventh hour occur just in the nick of time, right before it’s too late. Don’t wait until the eleventh hour to study for your vocabulary quiz!

The phrase eleventh hour has a Biblical origin; it comes from a parable in Matthew in which a few last-minute workers, hired long after the others, are paid the same wage. Despite being brought on the job after eleven hours of hard vineyard work, they weren’t too late. The meaning has shifted a bit over the years, but today doing something at the eleventh hour means you got in just under the wire.