HOLIDAY

vacation, holiday

(noun) leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure; “we get two weeks of vacation every summer”; “we took a short holiday in Puerto Rico”

holiday

(noun) a day on which work is suspended by law or custom; “no mail is delivered on federal holidays”; “it’s a good thing that New Year’s was a holiday because everyone had a hangover”

vacation, holiday

(verb) spend or take a vacation

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Proper noun

Holiday

A surname.

(US) The holiday season or Christmas season, especially when paired with a year.

Anagrams

• hyaloid, hyoidal

Etymology

Noun

holiday (plural holidays)

A day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.

Synonym: feast day

A day declared free from work by the state or government.

Synonyms: bank holiday (UK), national holiday

(chiefly, UK) A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural.

Synonyms: leave, time off, vacation (US), Thesaurus:vacation

(chiefly, UK) A period during which pupils do not attend their school; often plural; rarely used for students at university (usually: vacation).

Synonym: vacation (US)

(finance) A period during which, by agreement, the usual payments are not made.

A gap in coverage, e.g. of paint on a surface, or sonar imagery.

Synonym: lacuna

Verb

holiday (third-person singular simple present holidays, present participle holidaying, simple past and past participle holidayed) (chiefly, British)

To take a period of time away from work or study.

(British) To spend a period of time for travel.

Anagrams

• hyaloid, hyoidal

Source: Wiktionary

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Hol"i*day, n. Etym: [Holy + day.]

1. A consecrated day; religious anniversary; a day set apart in honor of some person, or in commemoration of some event. See Holyday.

2. A day of exemption from labor; a day of amusement and gayety; a festival day. And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday. Milton.

3. (Law)

Definition: A day fixed by law for suspension of business; a legal holiday.

Note: In the United States legal holidays, so called, are determined by law, commonly by the statutes of the several States. The holidays most generally observed are: the 22d day of February (Washington's birthday), the 30th day of May (Memorial day), the 4th day of July (Independence day), the 25th day of December (Christmas day). In most of the States the 1st day of January is a holiday. When any of these days falls on Sunday, usually the Monday following is observed as the holiday. In many of the States a day in the spring (as Good Friday, or the first Thursday in April), and a day in the fall (as the last Thursday in November) are now regularly appointed by Executive proclamation to be observed, the former as a day of fasting and prayer, the latter as a day of thanksgiving and are kept as holidays. In England, the days of the greater church feasts (designated in the calendar by a red letter, and commonly called red-letter days) are observed as general holidays. Bank holidays are those on which, by act of Parliament, banks may suspend business. Although Sunday is a holiday in the sense of a day when business is legally suspended, it is not usually included in the general term, the phrase "Sundays and holidays" being more common. The holidays, any fixed or usual period for relaxation or festivity; especially, Christmas and New Year's day with the intervening time.

Hol`i*day, a.

1. Of or pertaining to a festival; cheerful; joyous; gay. Shak.

2. Occurring rarely; adapted for a special occasion. Courage is but a holiday kind of virtue, to be seldom exercised. Dryden.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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