Half-holiday
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Half of a working or school day set aside for recreation on a special occasion.
"1784, obituary of Daniel Wray in The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume 54, Part 1, p. 72, His memory is still reflected on with a degree of pleasure by some […] who can revive the long-buried ideas of what passed at that school about the year 1716 or 17; when Sir Daniel was always ready, if any body was wanted, to beg a half-holiday on Tuesday afternoons."
- 2 a day on which half is free from work or duty wordnet
- 3 A religious festival lasting for half a day. historical
"For they had […] some appointed times, appropriated to the worship of their severall gods, as before was shewed: their holydayes, & half-holydayes, according to that estimation which their gods had gotten in the World."
Example
More examples"1784, obituary of Daniel Wray in The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume 54, Part 1, p. 72, His memory is still reflected on with a degree of pleasure by some […] who can revive the long-buried ideas of what passed at that school about the year 1716 or 17; when Sir Daniel was always ready, if any body was wanted, to beg a half-holiday on Tuesday afternoons."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.