Definition
nounA day on which a religious event or secular celebration is traditionally observed.
nounA day declared free from work by the state or government.
Sentence Examples
You are in need of a holiday.
You've worked hard for months and have certainly earned a holiday.
I've got three days' holiday including New Year's Day.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos
Proto-Germanic *hailaz
Proto-Indo-European *-kos
Proto-Germanic *-gaz
Proto-Germanic *hailagaz
Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ-?
Proto-Germanic *dagaz
Proto-Germanic *hailagadagaz
Old English hāliġdæġ
Middle English halyday
English holiday
From Middle English halyday, holyday, halidei, haliȝdei, from Old English hāliġdæġ (“holy day, Sabbath”), equivalent to holy + day. Compare West Frisian hjeldei (“holiday”), Danish helligdag (“holiday”), Norwegian helligdag (“holiday”), Swedish helgdag (“holiday, feast”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Monday, January 18, was the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. In the morning I held a reception for the diplomatic representatives of other nations in the inner quadrangle at Georgetown, addressing them from the steps of Old North Building."
— 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 5:
"No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:
"Climb aboard a butterfly and take off in the breeze. Let your worries flutter by and do the things you please. In the land where dollar bills are falling off the trees. On a dreamer’s holiday.[…]Make it a long vacation. Time, there is plenty of. You need no reservation. Just bring along the one you love."
— 1949 August 11, “A Dreamer’s Holiday”, performed by Perry Como, The Fontaine Sisters, and The Mitchell Ayres Orchestra: