Definitions

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

  • noun A Christian feast formerly celebrated in England, during which bread from the season's first wheat was consecrated at Mass in thanksgiving for the harvest.
  • noun A Christian feast formerly celebrated in commemoration of Saint Peter's deliverance from prison.
  • noun August 1, the day on which these feasts were celebrated.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, in England, the festival of the wheat-harvest, observed on the 1st of August, corresponding to the 12th in the modern calendar.
  • noun In Great Britain, the 1st of August as a date, which in Scotland is a quarter-day and in England a half-quarter-day.
  • noun The church festival of St. Peter's Chains, or St. Peter in the Fetters, observed on August 1st in memory of St. Peter's imprisonment and miraculous deliverance (Acts xii. 4–10).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The first day of August; -- called also Lammas day, and Lammastide.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun England former festival held on 1st August celebrating the harvest.
  • noun Scotland 1st August, a quarter day
  • noun paganism A modern pagan festival celebrated in early August celebrating the start of the grain harvest.

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

  • noun commemorates Saint Peter's miraculous deliverance from prison; a quarter day in Scotland; a harvest festival in England

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English Lammasse, from Old English hlāfmæsse : hlāf, loaf + mæsse, Mass; see Mass.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

from Old English hlafmæsse (loaf mass, harvest festival)

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