EVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Eve mean? 

• EVE (noun)
  The noun EVE has 4 senses:

1. (Old Testament) Adam's wife in Judeo-Christian mythology: the first woman and mother of the human race; God created Eve from Adam's rib and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

2. the day before

3. the period immediately before something

4. the latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall)

  Familiarity information: EVE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(Old Testament) Adam's wife in Judeo-Christian mythology: the first woman and mother of the human race; God created Eve from Adam's rib and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

adult female; woman (an adult female person (as opposed to a man))

Domain category:

Old Testament (the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The day before

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

he always arrives on the eve of her departure

Hypernyms ("eve" is a kind of...):

24-hour interval; day; mean solar day; solar day; twenty-four hour period; twenty-four hours (time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The period immediately before something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

on the eve of the French Revolution

Hypernyms ("eve" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

eve; even; evening; eventide

Context example:

he enjoyed the evening light across the lake

Hypernyms ("eve" is a kind of...):

day; daylight; daytime (the time after sunrise and before sunset while it is light outside)

Meronyms (parts of "eve"):

sundown; sunset (the time in the evening at which the sun begins to fall below the horizon)

crepuscle; crepuscule; dusk; evenfall; fall; gloam; gloaming; nightfall; twilight (the time of day immediately following sunset)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "eve"):

guest night (an evening when members of a club or college can bring their friends as guests)

 Context examples 

New Year’s Eve could be private, just for the two of you, or you may go to a party or restaurant with a soft and romantic atmosphere.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

On Midsummer-eve, Adele, weary with gathering wild strawberries in Hay Lane half the day, had gone to bed with the sun.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Working with ‘Eve’, the research team discovered that in fact, triclosan affects parasite growth by specifically inhibiting an entirely different enzyme of the malaria parasite, called DHFR.

(Toothpaste ingredient may help fight drug-resistant malaria, University of Cambridge)

But it was all a dream; no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

By the apple of Eve! cried the fat knight, it appears to me that this wind brings a very savory smell of garlic and of onions from their cooking-kettles.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They got up a masquerade, and had a gay time New Year's Eve.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was a happy and successful man, Mr. Holmes, and on the eve of being married, when a sudden and dreadful misfortune wrecked all my prospects in life.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It may be expected that on the eve of a migration which will consign us to a perfectly new existence, Mr. Micawber spoke as if they were going five hundred thousand miles, I should offer a few valedictory remarks to two such friends as I see before me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that to-night, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

From the assurance of Professor Challenger's manner—and in spite of the continued scepticism of Professor Summerlee—I have no doubt that our leader will make good his statement, and that we are really on the eve of some most remarkable experiences.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)