Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun November 11, formerly observed in the United States in commemoration of the signing of the armistice ending World War I in 1918. Since 1954, it has been incorporated into the observances of Veterans Day.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a legal holiday in the United States; formerly Armistice Day but called Veterans' Day since 1954

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In declaring the national holiday Armistice Day, Congress said it was to be "a day dedicated to the cause of world peace."

    Dave Lindorff: Obama's War and Remembrance Day 2009

  • The end of this essay segues to the second essay, Armistice Day 2 0 0 5, which at its end segues to the third essay, War Peace And Arms Control In The Bronze Age, all with links to additional resources.

    BLOODSHED TRILOGY 2006

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  • WORD: Armistice Day

    DEFINITION: n., November 11, formerly observed in the United States in commemoration of the signing of the armistice ending World War I in 1918. Since 1954 it has been incorporated into the observances of Veterans Day.

    -- American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition.

    EXAMPLE:

    "So this book is a sidewalk strewn with junk, trash which I throw over my shoulders as I travel in time back to November eleventh, nineteen hundred and twenty-two.

    "I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy . . . all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

    "It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

    "Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

    "So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

    "What else is sacred? Oh Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

    "And all music is."

    -- 1973 KURT VONNEGUT, JR. Breakfast of Champions, or, Goodbye Blue Monday -- Preface (page 6).

    September 3, 2013