bright and early
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word bright and early. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word bright and early, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say bright and early in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word bright and early you have here. The definition of the word bright and early will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofbright and early, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From bright (“in a bright manner: in good spirits; cheerfully, vivaciously”) + and + early.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌbɹaɪt‿n̩ ˈɜːli/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌbɹaɪt‿n̩ ˈɜɹli/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)li
- Hyphenation: bright and ear‧ly
Adverb
bright and early (comparative more bright and early, superlative most bright and early)
- (idiomatic, originally US) (Very) early in the morning.
- Synonyms: at the break of dawn, at the crack of dawn, first thing
- 1919 May 17, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 46, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter VI, page 90, columns 2–3:
- And this morning, bright and early, the beak parted him from ten quid.
- 2022 July 8, Mike Isaac, Kate Conger, “Twitter grapples with an Elon Musk problem”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-12-10:
- Bright and early on Monday, Elon Musk sent the government a surprising new document. In it, the world's wealthiest man laid out his possible intentions towards Twitter, in which he has amassed a 9.2 percent stake, underlining how drastically his position had changed from a week ago.
Usage notes
- Often used in the phrase to get up bright and early.
- The term often implies that the person who has woken up early is, or should be, alert and active at that time of day.[1]
Related terms
- early bird
- early riser
- early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise
- the early bird catches the worm, the early bird gets the worm
Translations
(very) early in the morning
|
See also
References
- ^ “bright and early, phrase” under “bright, adv.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
Further reading
- “bright and early, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “bright and early” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
- “bright and early” (US) / “bright and early” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
- “bright and early”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.