holiday

noun

1. 1

   A day on which a religious event or secular celebration is traditionally observed.

   Near-synonyms: holy day, feast day, festival (feast day sense)

   Today is a Wiccan holiday!

   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.

2. 2

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

3. 3

   A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural.

   How much holiday are you allowed?

   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.

   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.

4. 4

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

   I want to take a French course this summer holiday.

5. 5

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

   a mortgage payment holiday

6. 6

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

verb

1. 1

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

2. 2

   To spend a period of time in recreational travel.

Forms

plural

holidays

past tense

holidayed

past participle

holidayed

present participle

holidaying

third person singular

holidays