witching

Related to witching: Witching hour, Quadruple Witching

the witching hour

1. A late time of night, most often midnight, sometimes associated with the appearance of supernatural forces or entities. Halloween was the only night of the year that our parents would let us stay up until the witching hour.
2. The time just before bedtime when children become overactive or overly excited. Sorry for all the noise, we're heading into the witching hour with the kids now.
See also: hour, witching
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

witching hour

Midnight, as in They arrived just at the witching hour. This term alludes to older superstitions concerning a time appropriate to witchcraft and other supernatural occurrences. Shakespeare and others wrote of "the witching time of night." The precise phrase was first recorded in 1835.
See also: hour, witching
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

the witching hour

midnight.
In Shakespeare 's Hamlet, Hamlet declares: ‘Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world’. He is referring to the popular superstition that witches and other supernatural powers are active at midnight.
See also: hour, witching
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • the witching hour
  • witching hour
  • at night
  • I was up all night with a sick friend
  • day and night
  • a night on the tiles
  • tile
  • have a gas
  • the still of (the) night
  • the still of the night
References in periodicals archive
Notwithstanding that there could be an apparently open rejection of traditional beliefs about mysterious events seemingly occurring without rational cause and thus attributed to witching, there still remained a suspicion that there was mysterious aura about witchcraft that at times needed to be heeded.
"Now some tribal members are afraid to openly criticize or confront the council and its policies because of the fear of witching," she said at that time.
In this case the older belief in witching surmounted the Christian belief acquired later which taught that if faith is strong the devil/witch cannot harm one.
Witching sources and victims included not only members of the Pawnee tribe but other tribes as well as illustrated by the accusation made against the Choctaw person.
One important reason for not witching is the fear of being avoided by others resulting from the accusation that one is a witch.
Nevertheless, human emotions such as anger, jealousy and the desire for revenge could overcome this restraint, and witching did occur - and does today according to some Pawnees.
Native Voices