yesterday

nounadverbtop 1 000 in film dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈjɛstədeɪ//
United Kingdom//ˈjɛstədɪ//
United States//ˈjɛstɹdeɪ//
//ˈjɪstədə//

The day immediately before today; one day ago.

noun

1
The day immediately before today; one day ago.
Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow.
Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow.
Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …
Yesterday / All my troubles seemed so far away / Now it looks as though they're here to stay / Oh, I believe in yesterday
2
figurativeThe past, often in terms of being outdated.
yesterday's technology
The worker of today is different from that of yesterday.
All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

Etymology

From Middle English yesterday, yisterday, ȝesterdai, ȝisterdai, from Old English ġiestrandæġ, ġister dæġ, ġestor dæġ, ġeostran dæġ (“yesterday”), by surface analysis, yester- + day. Cognate with Scots yisterday, yesterday (“yesterday”), Saterland Frisian jässendeeg, järsendeges (“yesterday”, adverb), West Frisian justerdei (“yesterday”), Dutch gisterdag (“yesterday”), dialectal German gestertag (“yesterday”), Swedish gårdag (“yesterday”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (gistradagis, “tomorrow”, adverb). Compare further Dutch gisteren (“yesterday”), German gestern (“yesterday”).

adverb

1
On the day before today.
I started to watch the video yesterday, but could only finish it this evening.
2
informalAs soon as possible.
I want this done yesterday!
I need it yesterday!
"Europeans need to get to work yesterday and to focus," she says. "They have 5-10 years to stand on their own two feet in terms of conventional defence capabilities."

Forms

plural: yesterdays

yer · Either of the letters ъ and ь in Cyrillic alphabets, which…Yer · A member of Generation Y.yes · Used to show agreement or acceptance.

yesterday · The day immediately before today; one day ago.

yet · Thus far; up to the present; up to some unspecified time. In…Yeung · A surname from Cantonese.Yi · An ethnic group who live primarily in mountainous areas of…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.