dawn
nounEtymology From Middle English dawnen, either a back-formation from dawnynge or a modification of dawen (“to dawn”) after it. The noun is from the verb.
1
The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.
2
The rising of the sun.
- Every act of a Roman, from birth to death, from dawn to night, was controlled and supervised by some presiding deity.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 209:
3
The time when the sun rises.
- She rose before dawn to meet the train.
4
The earliest phase of something.
- The dawn of civilization didn't imply twilight of barbarity.
- In the Edinburgh area, Leith and neighbouring Granton have only one terminal station where formerly there were four, and the long-established ferry from Granton to Burntisland, the history of which stretches back to the dawn of Scottish railways, is no more.1958 July 23, J. P. Wilson, “Scottish Soliloquy”, in Railway Magazine, page 495:
1 more example
- The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
- Synonyms
- ass crack of dawn, break, break of dawn, break of day, butt crack of dawn, cockcrow, crack of dawn, dawn, daybreak, daylight, dayspring, first light, lauds, solrise, sparrow-fart, sun, sunlight, sunrise, sunrising, sunup
- Antonyms
- dusk
- Derived terms
38 terms
crack of dawn, dawn ape, dawn choir, dawn chorus, dawn horse, dawnless, dawnlight, dawnlike, dawn man, dawn of a new day, dawn of time, dawn patrol, dawn poppy, dawn prayer, dawn raid, dawn redwood, dawnside, dawn stone, dawn tetria, dawntime, dawn upon, dawny, false dawn, foredawn, Golden Dawn, handbags at dawn, it is always darkest before the dawn, it is always darkest just before the dawn, it is darkest before the dawn, it is darkest just before the dawn, new dawn, northern dawn, pistols at dawn, predawn, sundawn, the darkest hour is always just before the dawn, the darkest hour is just before the dawn, yesterdawn- Related terms
- dawning, crepuscular, early morning, postdawn, morning, midday, afternoon, evening, night, midnight, dawn chorus
- Hypernyms
- twilight
- Hyponyms
- astronomical dawn, civil dawn, nautical dawn
- Holonyms
- day