Dawn
Pronunciation
- Australia IPA: /doËn/
- UK IPA: /dÉ”Ën/
- US IPA: /dɔn/
- cot-caught IPA: /dɑn/
- Rhymes: -É”Ën
Origin
Back-formation from {{3}} Ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *dagaz, ‘day’.
Full definition of dawn
Verb
- (intransitive) To begin to brighten with daylight.A new day dawns.
- Bible, Matthew xxviii. 1In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene...to see the sepulchre.
- (intransitive) To start to appear or be realized.I don’t want to be there when the truth dawns on him.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 5, Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.
- (intransitive) To begin to give promise; to begin to appear or to expand.
- John Dryden (1631-1700)in dawning youth
- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)when life awakes, and dawns at every line
Derived terms
Noun
dawn
(countable and uncountable; plural dawns)- (uncountable) The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.
- (countable) The rising of the sun.
- (uncountable) The time when the sun rises.She rose before dawn to meet the train.
- (uncountable) The beginning.
- 2013-08-03, Yesterday’s fuel, 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).
- the dawn of civilization
Synonyms
- (rising of the sun) break of dawn, dayspring, sunrise
- (time when the sun rises) break of dawn, break of day, crack of dawn, daybreak, dayspring, sunrise, sunup
- (beginning) beginning, onset, start