curfew

Etymology

From Middle English curfu, from Old French cuevre-fu (French couvre-feu), from the imperative of covrir (“to cover”) + fu (“fire”).

noun

1. Any regulation requiring people to be off the streets and in their homes by a certain time.
   Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare. October 31 2012, David M. Halbfinger, “Hurricane Sandy”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-31
2. The time when such restriction begins.
3. A signal indicating this time.
4. A fireplace accessory designed to bank a fire by completely covering the embers.
5. (historical) A regulation in feudal Europe by which fires had to be covered up or put out at a certain fixed time in the evening, marked by the ringing of an evening bell.
6. The evening bell, which continued to be rung in many towns after the regulation itself became obsolete.
   I have my lodging neere unto a tower, where both evening and morning a very great bell doth chime Ave marie and Cover-few, which jangling doth even make the tower to shake […]. , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.95