English

Proper noun

Dawn

1. A female given name sometimes given to a girl born at that time of day.
   • 1958 MurielSpark, The Go-away Bird: With Other Stories, Macmillan 1958, page 20 ( "The Black Madonna"):

     "Thomas, if it's a boy," she said, "after my uncle. But if it's a girl I'd like something fancy for a first name." - - -

     "What about Dawn?" she said. "I like the sound of Dawn. Then Mary for a second name. Dawn Mary Parker, it sounds sweet."

     "Dawn! That's not a Christian name," he said. Then he told her, "Just as you please, dear."

   • 1964 Bob Gaudio - Sandy Linzer, Dawn ( a song ) :

     Dawn, go away, I’m no good for you.

Anagrams

• wand

English

Verb

dawn ‎(third-person singular simple present dawns, present participle dawning, simple past and past participle dawned)

1. (intransitive) To begin to brighten with daylight.

   A new day dawns.‎

   • Bible, Matthew xxviii. 1

     In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene […] to see the sepulchre.

2. (intransitive) To start to appear or be realized.

   I don’t want to be there when the truth dawns on him.‎

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     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.

3. (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

• dawn on

Translations

See also

• (times of day) time of day; dawn, morning, noon/midday, afternoon, evening, dusk, night, midnight ^{(Category: en:Times of day)}

Noun

dawn ‎(countable and uncountable, plural dawns)

1. (uncountable) The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.
2. (countable) The rising of the sun.
3. (uncountable) The time when the sun rises.

   She rose before dawn to meet the train.‎

4. (uncountable) The beginning.
   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     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

Antonyms

• dusk

Hypernyms

• twilight

Hyponyms

• astronomical dawn
• civil dawn
• nautical dawn

Derived terms

• crack of dawn
• dawn chorus
• it is always darkest before the dawn

Related terms

• dawning

Translations

See also

• crepuscular

Anagrams

• wand

Maltese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɐwn/

Determiner

dawn pl

1. plural of dan

Welsh

Alternative forms

• down (colloquial)
• deuwn (literary)

Pronunciation

Verb

dawn

1. (colloquial) first-person plural future of dod

Mutation