1. 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: "to be out after curfew without permission was to risk punishment"
▪ a daily signal indicating the start of curfew:"they had to return before the curfew sounded"
Word OriginMiddle 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.
