# holiday
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English halyday, holyday, halidei, haliȝdei, from Old English hāliġdæġ (“holy day, Sabbath”), equivalent to holy +‎ day. Compare West Frisian hjeldei (“holiday”), Danish helligdag (“holiday”), Norwegian helligdag (“holiday”), Swedish helgdag (“holiday, feast”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈhɒlɪdeɪ/, /-di/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈhɑləˌdeɪ/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Hyphenation: hol‧i‧day

### Noun

holiday (plural holidays)
* A day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.
    Synonyms: feast day, holy day
    Today is a Wiccan holiday!
** 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life‎, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 5: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.
* A day declared free from work by the state or government.
    Synonyms: (UK) bank holiday, national holiday
* (chiefly UK, Australia) A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural.
    Synonyms: leave, time off, (US) vacation; see also Thesaurus:vacation
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46: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.
** 1949 August 11, “A Dreamer’s Holiday”, performed by Perry Como, The Fontaine Sisters, and The Mitchell Ayres Orchestra: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.
* (chiefly UK, Australia) A period during which pupils do not attend their school; often plural; rarely used for students at university (usually: vacation).
    Synonym: (US) vacation
    I want to take a French course this summer holiday.
* (finance) A period during which, by agreement, the usual payments are not made.
    a mortgage payment holiday
* A gap in coverage, e.g. of paint on a surface, or sonar imagery.
    Synonym: lacuna

#### Derived terms

* alcoholiday
* all holiday
* antiholiday
* Bank Holiday
* bank holiday
* blind man's holiday
* blindman's holiday
* busman's holiday
* drug holiday
* enjoy your holiday
* go on holiday
* half-holiday
* Hallmark holiday
* hallmark holiday
* happy holidays
* high days and holidays
* High Holidays
* Holiday
* holiday camp
* holidayer
* holidayfic
* holiday fic
* holiday heart
* holiday heart syndrome
* holiday home
* holidayism
* holidaymaker
* holiday-maker
* holidaymaking
* holiday ownership
* holiday package
* holiday park
* holiday pay
* holiday season
* holiday speeches
* holiday time
* holiday tree
* holiday village
* legal holiday
* national holiday
* package holiday
* public holiday
* Roman holiday
* school holiday
* stat holiday
* statutory holiday
* summer holiday
* unholiday
* winter holiday

#### Related terms

* hallow
* Halloween
* whole

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

holiday (third-person singular simple present holidays, present participle holidaying, simple past and past participle holidayed) (chiefly British)
* (intransitive) To take a period of time away from work or study.
* (British, intransitive) To spend a period of time in recreational travel.

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “holiday”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

### Anagrams

* hyaloid, hyoidal

## Middle English
### Noun

holiday
* Alternative form of halyday