I. ˈdā noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English dæg; akin to Old High German tag day, Old Norse dagr, Gothic dags, Old English dōgor day, Old Norse dœgr, dœgn twelve-hour period, day, night; all probably from a prehistoric Germanic blend of a form or forms akin to Sanskrit ahn-, ahar twelve-hour period, day, night and a form or forms akin to Latin fovēre to warm, Greek tephra ashes, Sanskrit dahati he burns
1. : the time of light or interval between one night and the next : the time between sunrise and sunset or from dawn to darkness
2. : the period of the earth's rotation on its axis ordinarily divided into 24 hours, measured by the interval between two successive transits of a celestial body over the same meridian, and taking a specific name from that of the body — see solar day , mean solar day , sidereal day
3.
a. : civil day
b. among most modern nations : the mean solar day of 24 hours beginning at mean midnight
4.
a. : a day set aside for a particular purpose
rent day
Monday is wash day
b. sometimes capitalized
(1) : a date on which some notable event occurred or on which the occurrence of a notable event is celebrated
your wedding day
New Year's Day
(2) : a particular day that is identified by reference to or that is commonly associated with some unique historical event
Pearl Harbor Day
c. : the conflict or contention of the day
he was confident he could carry the day
d. archaic : one's set day of the week or month for receiving callers
e. Scotland : today — used with the
f. sometimes capitalized : a date on which some major event is expected to occur — used with the
socialists of the eighties and nineties who … yearned for The Day — E.R.Bentley
5. : daylight
at the break of day
6.
a. : the period of the existence or prominence of a person or thing : age — usually used in plural
in the days of sailing ships
b. : the term of one's career, activity, or life : lifetime
grandfather's stories about sports in his day
: the time during which one's life continues — used in plural
the general's last days
7.
a. : a unit of distance traversed in an ordinary day's travel
a ship two days out of port
b. : a unit consisting of the labor or output of one individual in one day
8. obsolete
a. : a period of grace especially for debtors
b. : a space of time
9.
a. : the hours or the daily recurring period established by usage or law for work
an 8-hour day
b. : a trading session on an exchange
a 3,000,000-share day
c. : a conventional unit for calculating pay of railroad employees based on hours worked and distance run
10. : a division of a window : light
11. : the time required by a celestial body in turning once on its axis
the moon's day is 27 solar days
12. : the surface of the ground over a mine
•
- day after day
- day in, day out
- from day to day
- this day week
- without day
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
archaic : to measure by the day