red letter day
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See also: red-letter day
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
An allusion to the practice, dating to classical antiquity, of marking important days in red on calendars.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
red letter day (plural red letter days)
- A day marked in red on calendars; a church feast day.
- 1825, Christian Gleaner and Domestic Magazine, Volume 2, page 161:
- The only red-letter day occurring in July, is the twenty-fifth, called St James's Day.
- 1893, Thomas De Quincey, “Conversation and Coleridge”, in Alexander H. Japp, editor, The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, volume II, London: William Heinemann:
- But the monsters who interrupt men in the middle of a sentence are to be found everywhere; and they are always practising. Red-letter days or black-letter days, festival or fast, makes no difference to them.
- (idiomatic) A particularly significant day; a day of personal or sectarian celebration.
- Monday was a red letter day for her. She accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.
- We saw losses for days in a row, but Black Tuesday was the worst red letter day of them all.
- 1975, John Ankenbruck, Twentieth Century History of Fort Wayne, page 286:
- "In the meantime, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre at Chicago was a red-letter day in the gangster wars."
- 2007, Clyde Wilton, Wilton's Wit, iUniverse, page 3:
- So I assume that we all have some red letter days that are precious to our memories—maybe a first date, a wedding, a gift, a word of encouragement, a vacation, a graduation or a trip to an interesting place.
I had one of those red letter days when I was a young boy, perhaps five or six years old.
- 2010, Eric Braun, Doris Day, Hachette, Revised and updated edition, unnumbered page,
- That was, indeed, a red-letter day in my filmgoing life, and a red-letter day in my literary life was when I was asked to write a new biography of Doris Day.
Usage notes
- Usually used to refer to a notably positive, favorable occasion, but sometimes used with a negative sense.
Synonyms
Coordinate terms
Translations
day of special significance
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