Coloured hock bottles? Too dark now to see

The answer to “Coloured hock bottles? Too dark now to see” in the The Times Cryptic crossword is PREDAWN — a 7-letter word. It most recently appeared in the The Times Cryptic crossword on September 15, 2026, a Tuesday puzzle, at 19-Down. Below you'll find why that fill fits, every other answer we've recorded for this clue, and links into the puzzle it came from.

“Coloured hock bottles? Too dark now to see” answer

PREDAWN (7 letters)

Reveal the solution one letter at a time with the tiles above if you'd rather nudge yourself toward it than see the whole word at once. Just want it outright? The answer is PREDAWN.

What does PREDAWN mean?

Reading the plain dictionary sense of PREDAWN is often the fastest way to see why it answers this clue.

When else has “Coloured hock bottles? Too dark now to see” appeared?

The Times Cryptic reuses clues across dates, sometimes with a different answer depending on the grid. Here's where this exact clue has shown up, and what the answer was each time — handy when you're checking whether today's fill is the only one.

September 15, 2026 (most recent) → PREDAWN. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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