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day(2) (iou)



day noun.

I. (The time of) sunlight.
The time during which the sun is above the horizon; the interval of light between two nights; the interval betweeen the usual times of getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. OE.
N. Carpenter The longest day is equall to the longest night. S. King The day was overcast and drippy.
Daybreak, dawn. Now rare or obsolete. ME.
H. Nelson This morning at day we fell in with a Spanish..Ship.
Daylight, the light of day. ME.
Defoe It was broad day.
Any of the perpendicular divisions or lights of a mullioned window. arch. LME.
Mining. The surface of the ground over a mine. M17.
II. As a unit of time.
The time for one rotation of the earth on its axis; the period of twenty-four hours as a unit of time, esp. from midnight to midnight. Also (Astronomy), a single rotation of a planet in relation to its primary. OE.
D. Brewster We may regard the length of the day as one of the most unchangeable elements in the system of the world. R. S. Thomas So the days will drift into months. P. Cheyney Life is what you make it. Rome wasn't built in a day.
b. A day of notable eventfulness etc. colloq. E20.
E. Hemingway I say. We have had a day..I must have been blind [drunk].
This period of time, esp. the civil day, treated as a point or unit of time, a particular date, etc. OE.
Day Lewis I was born next dayApril 27th, 1904.
III. A specified or appointed day.
A specific period of twenty-four hours, the whole or part of which is assigned to some particular purpose, observance, or action; the date of a specified festival etc. (freq. with specifying word(s)). OE.
Ascension Day, birthday, Boxing Day, Christmas Day, Father's Day, holiday, Labour Day, Lady Day, May Day, New Year's Day, pay-day, St Andrew's day, St Swithin's day, washday, wedding day, workday, etc.
J. Cheever The day of the flower show.
b. The period of time in each day, established by law or usage, during which work is customarily done; a working-day. M19.
R. Tangye A great agitation..in favour of a nine hours' day. M. McCarthy A little light chatter about her day in the store.
A date agreed on; a day for a regular event, as being at home for guests, seeing patients at a clinic, etc. ME.
Dryden Or if my debtors do not keep their day. Mrs H. Ward We found she was in town, and went on her 'day'.
The day of a battle or contest; (victory in) a battle. L15.
T. Tusser The battell is fought, thou hast gotten the daye. J. McCrae These..died not knowing how the day had gone.
IV. A space of time, a period.
sing. & in pl. The time during which something exists or takes place; a period, a time, an era; the current period. Also (with possess. pers. noun or pronoun) the period of a person's rule, activity, career, or life; one's lifetime; time of action, period of power or influence. OE.
school-days etc.
Dryden I at Naples pass my peaceful Days. M. L. King The Hitlers and the Mussolinis have their day, and for a period they may wield great power. J. C. Oates A popular tune of the day. Proverb: Every dog has his day.
Time allowed in which to be ready for something, esp. payment; delay, respite; credit. Long rare. LME.
A space of time (freq. of a defined extent). obsolete exc. Scot. LME.
Phrases: a good day's work: see WORK noun. all day (long), all the day (long) throughout the day, from daybreak to nightfall. all in a day's work, all in the day's work part of the normal routine, a matter of course. an eight days: see EIGHT adjective. any day at any time, under any conditions. as clear as day: see CLEAR adjective. astronomical day = solar day below. at the end of the day in the final reckoning. better days times of greater prosperity. break of day: see BREAK noun 4. call it a day decide that one has worked at a task long enough, cease working (for the day, for the present, or finally); be satisfied with what one has done. carry the day: see CARRY verb. civil day: as used for time reckoning in ordinary affairs. day after day each day as a sequel to the preceding one, esp. in an unvarying sequence. day and night: throughout these or in both alike. day by day on each successive day, daily without ceasing. day in, day out: see IN adverb. Day of Atonement: see ATONEMENT. day off a day away from work, school, etc. Day of Judgement: see JUDGEMENT. day of RECKONING. day of rest spec. the Sabbath. day of retribution: see RETRIBUTION 2. day of the Covenant: see COVENANT noun. day of the week: see WEEK noun. day of truce: see TRUCE noun. day out a day away from home etc., an excursion. days of grace: see GRACE noun. day-to-day continuous(ly), routine(ly). dish of the day: see DISH noun 3a. dog days: see DOG noun. dominical day: see DOMINICAL adjective 1. eight days: see EIGHT adjective. Ember day: see EMBER adjective. end one's days pass the last part of one's life, die. equinoctial day: see EQUINOCTIAL adjective. evil day(s): see EVIL adjective. eye of day: see EYE noun. fifth day: see FIFTH adjective. FIRST day. FOURTH day. from day to day continuously or without interruption from one day to another. have had its day be of no further use or effect. high day: see HIGH adjective. if he's a day, if she's a day, etc., at least (a particular age etc.) in this day and age at the present time, the way things are at the present. Judgement Day: see JUDGEMENT. last day(s): see LAST adjective. late in the day fig. late in the proceedings; esp. so late as to be of doubtful use. light of day: see LIGHT noun. Lord's day: see LORD noun. lunar day: see LUNAR adjective. make a day of it: see MAKE verb. make a person's day: see MAKE verb. mean solar day: see MEAN adjective2. natural day (a) = sense 1 above; (b) = sense 6 above (the usual sense). night and day = day and night above. not one's day a day when things go badly for one. of a day transitory, ephemeral. one day on some unspecified day, past or future. one fine day, one of these fine days: see FINE adjective. one of these days before long. one of those days a day of misfortune. on one's day at the time of one's best achievement etc., when at one's best. open day: see OPEN adjective. order of the day: see ORDER noun. red letter day: see RED adjective. SALAD days. second day: see SECOND adjective. SIDEREAL day. solar day: see SOLAR adjective1. some day: see SOMEDAY adverb. that will be the day that will be worth waiting for, iron. that will never happen. these days adverb nowadays, at present. The Day [translating German DER TAG] a day expected to be marked by an important event, esp. a military conflict or victory. the Lord's day: see LORD noun. the other day: see OTHER adjective. the tother day: see TOTHER adjective. this day MONTH. those were the days (particular) past times were good or iron. bad (in comparison with the present). time of day: see TIME noun. to one's dying day: see DYING adjective1. tother day: see TOTHER adjective. to this day at the present time as in the past, still, yet. twelfth day: see TWELFTH adjective. until one's dying day: see DYING adjective1. VARNISHING day. wait the day: see WAIT verb. win the day: see WIN verb1. with continuation of days: see CONTINUATION 5. WORKING day See also WEEKDAY.
Comb.: day-bed a bed for daytime sleep or rest; a sofa, a couch; day blindness = HEMERALOPIA; daybook (a) arch. a journal, a diary; formerly also, a nautical logbook; (b) an account-book in which esp. sale transactions are entered at once for later transfer to a ledger; day-boy a schoolboy who attends a boarding-school but lives at home; daybreak dawn, the first light of day; day care the supervision of young children during the day, esp. while a parent or guardian is at work; day centre a place providing social, recreational, or other facilities for elderly or handicapped persons during the day; day-dawn poet. daybreak; day-flower any of various plants of the genus Commelina of the spiderwort family, having short-lived flowers usually blue in colour; day-fly a mayfly, living only a few hours or days; day-girl a schoolgirl who attends a boarding-school but lives at home; day labour work performed as a daily task, daily labour; labour hired by the day; day labourer: hired by the day; day letter US History a low-priority telegram sent by day; day lily any of various plants of the genus Hemerocallis of the lily family, with yellow, reddish, or purplish flowers lasting only for a day; daylong adjective & adverb (lasting) for a whole day; daymare [after nightmare] a frightening or oppressive trance or hallucinatory condition experienced while awake; day-nursery (a) a room for children in the daytime; (b) a place where young children are looked after while a parent or guardian is at work; day-owl an owl that hunts by day, esp. the short-eared owl; day-peep arch. earliest dawn; day release a system of allowing employees days off work to follow educational courses; day return (a ticket) at a reduced rate for a journey made both ways in one day; day-room a room used by day only; esp. a common living-room at a boarding school, a common-room for inmates of a hospital, etc.; day-rule a rule or order which permitted a prisoner to go beyond the confines of prison for one day; day-school a school attended daily during the week, esp. as opp. to Sunday, night-, or boarding-school; day shift a shift worked during the daylight hours, as opp. to the night shift; daysman (a) arch. an arbitrator, a mediator; (b) a day labourer; day-spring arch. & poet. dawn; day-star (a) the morning star; (b) (chiefly poet.) the sun; daytime the time of daylight; day trader a person employed in day trading; day trading a form of share dealing in which individuals buy and sell shares over the Internet over a period of a single day's trading, with the intention of profiting from small price fluctuations; daywork (a) (obsolete exc. dial.) a day's work; (b) the amount of land able to be ploughed in a day; (c) work paid for according to the time worked.
dayless adjective (a) without redress, resource, or result; (b) poet. devoid of daylight, dark: LME.