six o'clock

English

Noun

six o’clock

2. (In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the seventh hour of the day; 6:00 a.m. (06:00).

   The breakfast buffet opens at six o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 6:00 a.m.").

4. (Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the nineteenth hour of the day; 6:00 p.m. (18:00).

   The next train comes at six o'clock (= "The next train comes at 18:00").

6. (informal) A position behind (horizontal clock orientation) or below (vertical clock orientation) (from the location of the 6 mark on a clock face)

   We've got some bogeys at six o'clock.

   You've got a bogey on your six o'clock.

   I've got your six (= "I've got your back").

   Check your six (= "Watch your back").

Translations

the start of the seventh hour

• Arabic: اَلسَّاعَة اَلسَّادِسَة f (as-sāʕa s-sādisa)
• Catalan: les sis f pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 六點鐘／六点钟 (zh) (liù diǎn zhōng), 六點／六点 (liù diǎn)

• Ewe: ga ade n
• Finnish: kuusi (fi), kello kuusi
• French: six heures f pl
• German: sechs Uhr
• Icelandic: klukkan sex
• Japanese: 六時 (ja) (ろくじ, roku-ji)
• Korean: 여섯시 (yeoseotsi)
• Latin: hora sexta
• Macedonian: шест часот (šest časot)
• Navajo: hastą́ądi azlį́į́ʼ
• Ojibwe: ingodwaaso-diba'igane
• Polish: szósta (pl) f
• Portuguese: seis horas f pl
• Russian: шесть часо́в (šestʹ časóv, literally “six hours”)
• Spanish: las seis f pl
• Swedish: klockan sex
• Tagalog: alas-seis
• Ukrainian: шо́ста годи́на f (šósta hodýna, literally “sixth hour”)
• Vietnamese: sáu giờ

Adjective

six o'clock (not comparable)

1. (US, especially black slang, of a woman) Straight up and down, without curves, like the hands of a clock.
   • 1992, Edith Templeton, Murder in Estoril, Fourth Estate Classic House:

     She had the straight, flat figure which Bianca would have described as "a six-o'clock girl, straight up and straight down", and I thought how clever it was of Mascarenhas to have picked her to be in attendance, […]

   • 2004, Édith Templeton, Gordon: A Novel, Vintage, →ISBN, page 40:

     His shoulders were no wider than his hips; he had what is called a six o'clock figure, straight up and straight down, a skimped and scanty physique, as though the fairy of miserliness had presided over his conception.

   • 2011, Creasie M. Washington, The Crossing of Yamacraw, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 141:

     Rena Mae was still an attractive woman, but now she was considered a six o'clock woman instead of a woman with big hips, […]

   • 2016, Donald L. Kaufmann, O Brave New Eve: Genetic Fantasy, →ISBN:

     Her body was void of pliable curves; instead, [she] was hard and angular, what dirty-minded high school boys once called “a six o'clock figure.” As for the rest of Tish, what should have been, just wasn't. Her hair (blonde? brown?) was frizzy, ...

See also

• Clock position on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• Clarence Major (1994) “straight up six o'clock girl (1940s)”, in Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang, Puffin Books
• 2005, Jonathon Green, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. (→ISBN), page 1377, "straight up six o'clock girl": [1940s] (US Black) a very thin woman