oh dark hundred
Some unspecified hour in the early morning (implies an unpleasant time to be awake)
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I have to wake up at oh dark hundred for work.”
“The baby usually wakes up at oh dark hundred.”
“Do you really enjoy gym sessions at oh dark hundred?”
“The alarm went off at oh dark hundred, and I struggled to get out of my warm bed.”
“We had to leave for the airport at oh dark hundred to catch the first flight of the day.”
“My neighbor starts his noisy truck at oh dark hundred every morning before the sun comes up.”
“The fishing boat left the harbor at oh dark hundred so the crew could reach the best spots before the other boats arrived.”
“The soldiers were ordered to begin their march at oh dark hundred, long before the sun had even considered rising over the horizon.”
Derived from military timekeeping, in which the hours before 10:00 am are prefixed with a zero and read as "oh". The final two digits of the hour, representing zero minutes, are read as "hundred", as in the standard military pronunciation of 0500 as "oh five-hundred". The idiom applies this formal structure to denote an hour that is perceived as unnecessarily early.
- 01
a hundred and ten percent
A level of effort beyond what one can usually sustain; great exertion.
- 02
bat five hundred
To be successful half of the time; to have a success rate of 50%.
- 03
be a hundred years too early
To be so immature and unprepared as to have no hope of achieving an accomplishment.
- 04
dark cloud
A situation or future event that causes worry, problems or unhappiness, likened to such a cloud overhead in the sky.
- 05
dark horse
Someone who possesses talents or favorable characteristics that are not known or expected by others.
- 06
keep it one hundred
To be authentic, to be true to oneself.
- 07
look on the dark side
To examine a situation, usually unfavorable, from a negative perspective; to be pessimistic or miserable.
- 08
oh dark thirty
Some unspecified hour in the early morning (implying an unpleasant time to be awake).
Last updated August 10, 2026