English

Noun

halcyon days (plural only)

1. Period of calm during the winter, when storms do not occur.
2. (idiomatic) A period of calm, often nostalgic: “halcyon days of yore”, “halcyon days of youth”.

Quotations

• c.1591 – William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1

  Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days, / Since I have entered into these wars.

• c.1880 – Ambrose Bierce, On a Mountain

  And, by the way, during those halcyon days (the halcyon was there, too, chattering above every creek, as he is all over the world) we fought another battle.

• 1891 – Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Book XXXIV

  Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
  The brooding and blissful halcyon days!

Translations

See also

• Alcyone
• days of wine and roses
• days of yore
• halcyon
• nostalgia
• salad days