Definitions

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

  • noun The beginning of day; dawn.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The dawn or first appearance of light in the morning.

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

  • noun The time of the first appearance of light in the morning.

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

  • noun Dawn.

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

  • noun the first light of day

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The speaker circumvents the threat of potentially fatal contraction by becoming like the sun, by becoming what he beholds: "We also ascend dazzling and tremendous as the sun," and the daybreak is suddenly "calm and cool" (564-5).

    'Points of Contact': Blake and Whitman 2006

  • He had come in at daybreak from the neighboring village, with the news that the old mother had been run over by a cart at the fair and could not travel for many days.

    Love and Life Behind the Purdah 1901

  • As the execution was to take place as soon as it should legally be daybreak, that is, about half-past four o'clock, the brothers did not go to bed but sat up in the workroom, feeling somewhat drowsy, and exchanging few words.

    The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete Lourdes, Rome and Paris ��mile Zola 1871

  • As the execution was to take place as soon as it should legally be daybreak, that is, about half-past four o'clock, the brothers did not go to bed but sat up in the workroom, feeling somewhat drowsy, and exchanging few words.

    The Three Cities Trilogy: Paris, Volume 5 ��mile Zola 1871

  • As the execution was to take place as soon as it should legally be daybreak, that is, about half-past four o'clock, the brothers did not go to bed but sat up in the workroom, feeling somewhat drowsy, and exchanging few words.

    The Three Cities Trilogy: Paris, Complete ��mile Zola 1871

  • At last he consented that I should stay with him till just before daybreak, which is in that, as in most climates, the coolest time generally of the twenty-four hours.

    Manco, the Peruvian Chief An Englishman's Adventures in the Country of the Incas William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • When the freedman had ceased speaking, Vetranio sat up on the couch, called for a basin of water, dipped his fingers in the refreshing liquid, dried them abstractedly on the long silky curls of the singing-boy who stood beside him, gazed about him once more, repeated interrogatively the word 'daybreak', and sunk gently back upon his couch.

    Antonina Wilkie Collins 1856

  • Original had "daybreak"; changed to "day-break" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text.

    Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819-20-21-22, Volume 2 John Franklin 1816

  • I am becoming a thin line as I walk toward the streak of daybreak light in front of me.

    The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010

  • The sacred cross is the intersection of the cracks of daybreak and nightfall.

    The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010

Comments

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  • Chuck Norris can put daybreak back together.

    December 11, 2009

  • Hah! Superb, bilby!

    December 11, 2009