HOLIDAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does holiday mean? 

• HOLIDAY (noun)
  The noun HOLIDAY has 2 senses:

1. leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure

2. a day on which work is suspended by law or custom

  Familiarity information: HOLIDAY used as a noun is rare.

• HOLIDAY (verb)
  The verb HOLIDAY has 1 sense:

1. spend or take a vacation

  Familiarity information: HOLIDAY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOLIDAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

holiday; vacation

Context example:

we took a short holiday in Puerto Rico

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

leisure; leisure time (time available for ease and relaxation)

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

half-term (a short vacation about halfway through a school term)

vac; vacay (informal term for vacation)

field day; outing; picnic (a day devoted to an outdoor social gathering)

honeymoon (a holiday taken by a newly married couple)

paid vacation (a vacation from work by an employee with pay granted)

Derivation:

holiday (spend or take a vacation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A day on which work is suspended by law or custom

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

it's a good thing that New Year's was a holiday because everyone had a hangover

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

day (a day assigned to a particular purpose or observance)

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

half-holiday (a day on which half is free from work or duty)

feast day; fete day (a day designated for feasting)

holy day; religious holiday (a day specified for religious observance)

Christmas Eve; Dec 24 (the day before Christmas)

legal holiday; national holiday; public holiday (authorized by law and limiting work or official business)

Poppy Day; Remembrance Day; Remembrance Sunday (the Sunday nearest to November 11 when those who died in World War I and World War II are commemorated)

Ramanavami (Hindu lunar holiday (on the 9th day of Caitra) to celebrate the birth of Rama)

Mesasamkranti (Hindu solar holiday at the beginning of the new astrological year when the sun enters the constellation Aries)

• HOLIDAY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they holiday    ... he / she / it holidays   
Past simple: holidayed   
Past participle: holidayed   
-ing form: holidaying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spend or take a vacation

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

holiday; vacation

Hypernyms (to "holiday" is one way to...):

pass; spend (use up a period of time in a specific way)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "holiday"):

honeymoon (spend a holiday after one's marriage)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

holiday (leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure)

 Context examples 

"Never mind, let him take a holiday, and make it up afterward," said the old gentleman.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Do so instead in December at holiday parties.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It was near Christmas by the time all was settled: the season of general holiday approached.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

For twenty-five days, working Sundays and holidays, he toiled on "The Shame of the Sun," a long essay of some thirty thousand words.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He was very willing to have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for the address that was given us in the advertisement.

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

And when that owner come back from his holiday in Switzerland he find only an empty hole where his house had been.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Among my boys, this summer holiday time, I see an old man making giant kites, and gazing at them in the air, with a delight for which there are no words.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Harsh old flag-officers, grave post-captains, young lieutenants, all were roaring like schoolboys breaking up for the holidays.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And I am sure, my name was Norval, every evening of my life through one Christmas holidays.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Functional Activities Questionnaire-NACC Version (FAQ-NACC Version) Remembering appointments, family occasions, holidays, medications.

(FAQ-NACC Version - Remember, NCI Thesaurus)