dawn

verb

1. 1

   To begin to brighten with daylight.

   A new day dawns.

   In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene[…]to see the sepulchre.

2. 2

   figurativeTo start to appear or become obvious.

   I don’t want to be there when the truth dawns on him.

   The realization dawned on him that few would pass that final exam.

   Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.

3. 3

   figurativeTo begin to give promise; to begin to appear or to expand.

   when life awakes, and dawns at every line

   in dawning youth

   Leave the time of war behind and let a time of peace dawn!

noun

1. 1

   The morning twilight period immediately before sunrise.

2. 2

   The rising of the sun.

   Every act of a Roman, from birth to death, from dawn to night, was controlled and supervised by some presiding deity.

3. 3

   The time when the sun rises.

   She rose before dawn to meet the train.

4. 4

   The earliest phase of something.

   The dawn of civilization didn't imply twilight of barbarity.

   In the Edinburgh area, Leith and neighbouring Granton have only one terminal station where formerly there were four, and the long-established ferry from Granton to Burntisland, the history of which stretches back to the dawn of Scottish railways, is no more.

   The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).

Forms

plural

dawns

past tense

dawned

past participle

dawned

present participle

dawning

third person singular

dawns