finest hour

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

finest hour (plural finest hours)

1. (idiomatic) A point in time or a relatively brief period of time when an especially distinguished, admirable, or effective set of actions is performed.
   • 1940 June 18, “Churchill Says Hope Not Dead”, in San Jose Evening News, retrieved 28 August 2013, page 1:

     Winston Churchill proclaimed today to his Parliament and people the beginning of "the battle for Britain" […] "Let us brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: ‘This was their finest hour.’"

   • 1979 August 2, Peter Calamai, “Analysis: It's brave words and bad vibrations”, in Edmonton Journal, Canada, retrieved 28 August 2013, page D20:

     Commonwealth countries were called upon to rise to their finest hour against the double crises of Rhodesia and global poverty.

   • 2010 October 13, Tim Padgett, “Chile Celebrates As Miners Emerge from Underground”, in Time, retrieved 28 August 2013:

     The U.S. exulted 40 years ago when it brought its three Apollo 13 astronauts back safely from a disaster in space. Early Wednesday morning, Chile […] can celebrate its own finest hour as it rescues its 33 miners from the abyss.

   • 2023 October 19, Daniel Boffey, quoting Tom Tugendhat, “Israel accuses BBC of ‘modern blood libel’ over reporting of hospital strike”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday morning, the UK’s security minister, Tom Tugendhat, criticised “irresponsible speculation” and said it had not been “the BBC’s finest hour”.

Synonyms

• day in the sun, heyday

References

• “finest hour”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.