O’clock

TO KNOW WHAT’S O’CLOCK, verb. phr. (popular).—To be alert; TO BE PUT UP TO THE TIME OF DAY. See KNOW.

  1835.  DICKENS, Sketches by Boz. Our governor’s wide awake, he is. I’ll never say nothin’ agin him, nor no man; but he KNOWS WHAT’S O’CLOCK, he does, uncommon.

  1849.  THACKERAY, Pendennis, x. I’m not clever, p’raps: but I am rather downy; and partial friends say I know WHAT’S O’CLOCK tolerably well.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxvii. As for old Mullockson, he used to take a drive to Sawpit Gully, or Ten-Mile, as soon as ever he saw WHAT O’CLOCK it was—and glad to clear out, too.

  LIKE ONE O’CLOCK, phr. (common).—Quickly; readily; in ‘a JIFFY’ (q.v.). See LIKE.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 29. He trotted on LIKE ONE O’CLOCK.

  1852.  DICKENS, Bleak House, xx. He has seen him through the shop-door, sitting in the back premises, sleeping LIKE ONE O’CLOCK.

  1876.  M. E. BRADDON, Dead Men’s Shoes, xx. ‘I declare this den of yours swarms with reptiles. I saw a toad under the bench yesterday.’ ‘Toads are valuable animals,’ answers Jane. ‘They eat the snails LIKE ONE O’CLOCK.’