eleventh hour

plural eleventh hours · alternative eleventh-hour · alternative 11th hour

1. countableidiomaticuncountableA point in time which is nearly too late; the last minute.

   If she repented, though at the eleventh hour, it was not too late.

   1857, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 85, in The Virginians

   5 more examples

   Highly providential was the appearance on the scene of Corny Kelleher when Stephen was blissfully unconscious but for that man in the gap turning up at the eleventh hour the finish might have been that he might have been a candidate for the accident ward […]

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   In the same year, 1844, negotiations were begun to strengthen the North Union's position by an amalgamation with the Liverpool & Manchester and Grand Junction companies, but at the eleventh hour the shareholders took exception to the rather overbearing ways of the Grand Junction, and backed out.

   1960 February 28, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Preston—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 100

   I have extricated myself so far at many eleventh hours and perhaps there is some hope in this.

   1961, Philip Toynbee, Underdogs: Eighteen Victims of Society, page 56

   Egypt had managed to bring the two sides to the brink of a deal two weeks ago, before internal political dynamics prompted the Israelis to back out at the eleventh hour.

   2009 March 3, Tony Karon, “Why Money Alone Will Not Fix Gaza”, in TIME, archived from the original on 14 May 2009

   Thus, the famous title of the dictionary is, at base, derogatory. This explains why Yule kept the title secret until the eleventh hour, why some contemporary reviewers took exception to the title, and why Yule highlighted Burnell’s approval of the title.

   2014, James Lambert, “A Much Tortured Expression: A New Look At `Hobson-Jobson'”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 27, number 1, page 59