holiday Hear it!

holiday Definition

holi·day (häl′ə dā′)

noun

  1. holy day
  2. a day of freedom from labor; day set aside for leisure and recreation
  3. Chiefly Brit. a period of leisure or recreation; vacation
  4. a day set aside by law or custom for the suspension of business, usually in commemoration of some event

Etymology: < ME holidei, with shortened first vowel < OE hāligdæg: see holy & day

adjective

of or suited to a holiday; joyous; merry the holiday spirit

intransitive verb

Chiefly Brit. to take a vacation or vacation trip

Holiday Definition

Holi·day (häl′ə dā′)

Holiday, Billie (born Eleonora Fagan Holiday) 1915-59; U.S. jazz singer: also called Lady Day

holiday Synonyms

holiday

n.

  1. A memorial day

    feast day, fiesta, saint's day, legal holiday, holy day, festival, fete, centennial, bicentennial, tercentenary, carnival, gala day, jubilee, red-letter day, fast day; see also anniversary, celebration 1, 2.

    Common holidays in the United States include: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday, Valentine's Day, Washington's Birthday, Presidents' Day, St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, Veterans Day, Armistice Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.

  2. Christian holidays include: Epiphany, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy, Thursday, Passion Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Whitsunday, All Saint's Day, Christmas, Feast of the Nativity.

  3. Jewish holidays include: Purim, Feast of Lots, Passover, Shavuot, Hebrew Pentecost, Feast of Weeks, Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles, Simhat Torah, Rejoicing of the Law, Hanukkah, Festival of Lights.

  4. A vacation

    weekend, time off, leave, day off; see vacation.

holiday Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • surf: Search for surfing vacations & surfing holidays at the best.. .

Adjective modifier

  • relaxing: Enjoy a relaxing holiday in comfort, open all year.
  • diving: Interest & Activity Holidays IAH scuba offers comprehensive Scuba Packages which can include everything for your diving holiday.
  • self-catering: It is very well equipped, providing all the necessary equipment for a self-catering holiday.

Modifies a noun

  • cottage: Luxury large holiday cottage to rent at youth hostel prices.
  • destination: To avoid heavy daytime traffic some drivers travel through the night to their holiday destination.
  • accommodation: Beachmodern is a new company striving to offer high quality holiday accommodation on the North Cornish coast in Bude.
  • entitlement: Students studying for 12 weeks or more have a holiday entitlement, which varies according to course length.
  • villa: Click here to book a magnificent holiday villa on the Costa Blanca - for less than the price of an average Spanish hotel!
  • resort: A relaxing holiday resort with the lively center of Las Americas a short walk away.

Noun used with modifier

  • summer: Summer Holidays Some of you will no doubt be planning summer holidays.
  • bank: This being a change in the advised meeting date on the April Agenda due to May 6 th 2002 being a bank holiday.
  • catering: Use of all the park's facilities come free with a Seaview self catering holiday.
  • skiing: I didn't want to go on a skiing holiday.
  • package: Sitting next to me were two Russian English teachers who had been on a package holiday in Britain.
  • luxury: At the side of the search list is a ' sponsored link ' offering a link to a database of luxury holiday hotels.

Preposition: by

  • sea: All aimed to help you have a relaxing, stylish holiday by the sea.

Preposition: in

  • Tenerife: Basic price from £ 449 Special deals on Tenerife holidays Holidays in Tenerife at a top class 5 star hotel in Costa Adeje.

Preposition: of

  • lifetime: We are offering the holiday of a lifetime to the person who writes the most amusing or original suggestions.

Preposition: per

  • annum: Shared care contract carers are entitled to 4 weeks holiday per annum.
holiday Quotes

His first holiday.

—Lardner Bursiquot

Thislittlesteamer, likeall herbraveand battered sisters,is immortal. She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk. And our great-great-grand-children, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.

—Priestley,J(ohn) B(oynton)

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

—Shaw, George Bernard

It's a regular holiday to themöall porter and skittles.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

There were his young barbarians all at play, There was their Dacian motheröhe, their sire, Butchered to make a Roman holiday.

—Rochdale

I don't want to spend the next two years in Holiday Inns.

—Mondale,Walter F(rederick)

Browse dictionary entries near holiday

  1. ‹ -holic
  2. ‹ Holguín
  3. ‹ holey
  4. ‹ hole up
  5. ‹ hole saw
  6. ‹ hole in the wall
  7. ‹ hole card
  8. ‹ hole-and-corner
  9. ‹ hole
  10. ‹ holdup
  1. holidaymaker ›
  2. holidays ›
  3. holier-than-thou ›
  4. holily ›
  5. holiness ›
  6. Holinshed ›
  7. holism ›
  8. holistic ›
  9. holla ›
  10. holland ›