Library / English Dictionary

DAWN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The earliest period

Example:

the morning of the world

Synonyms:

dawn; morning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

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

start (the beginning of anything)

Derivation:

dawn (appear or develop)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The first light of day

Example:

they talked until morning

Synonyms:

aurora; break of day; break of the day; cockcrow; dawn; dawning; daybreak; dayspring; first light; morning; sunrise; sunup

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

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

hour; time of day (clock time)

Derivation:

dawn (become light)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An opening time period

Example:

it was the dawn of the Roman Empire

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

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

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

Domain usage:

figure; figure of speech; image; trope (language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense)

Derivation:

dawn (appear or develop)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become light

Example:

It started to dawn, and we had to get up

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

dawn; dawning (the first light of day)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become clear or enter one's consciousness or emotions

Example:

she was penetrated with sorrow

Synonyms:

click; come home; dawn; fall into place; get across; get through; penetrate; sink in

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Cause:

understand (know and comprehend the nature or meaning of)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Appear or develop

Example:

The age of computers had dawned

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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

begin; start (have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

dawn (the earliest period)

dawn (an opening time period)

Credits

 Context examples: 

From early dawn until nightfall he was running, jumping, striking a bladder which swung upon a bar, or sparring with his formidable trainer.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We start at dawn to-morrow, and ye are to have the horses of Sir Robert Cheney's company.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Dawn has been using its ion propulsion system to maneuver to its first science orbit at Ceres, which it will reach on April 23.

(Dawn Glimpses Ceres' North Pole, NASA)

The biggest and brightest moon for observers in the United States will be on Monday morning just before dawn.

(November Supermoon a Spectacular Sight, NASA)

Dawn launched in 2007 and is scheduled to enter Ceres orbit in March 2015.

(Dawn Spacecraft Begins Approach to Dwarf Planet Ceres, NASA)

For instance, clock proteins activate the production of other proteins that are responsible for photosynthesis in leaves just before dawn.

(Plants can tell time even without a brain, University of Cambridge)

Burivalova and his team found that soundscape saturation peaked at dawn and dusk, likely because most birds and amphibians vocalise in those periods.

(Scientists record the sound of intact forest, SciDev.Net)

Dawn's gamma ray and neutron (GRaND) detector observed evidence that Ceres had accelerated electrons from the solar wind to very high energies over a period of about six days.

(Ceres' Geological Activity, Ice Revealed in New Research, NASA)

The maturity of the stars seen in MACS1149-JD1 raises the question of when the very first galaxies emerged from total darkness, an epoch astronomers romantically term “cosmic dawn”.

(ALMA and VLT Find Evidence for Stars Forming Just 250 Million Years After Big Bang, ESO)

Dawn previously found carbonates, common on the planet's surface, that formed within an ocean.

(NASA Dawn Reveals Recent Changes in Ceres' Surface, NASA)