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 (General Australian): (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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