Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word weekend. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word weekend, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say weekend in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word weekend you have here. The definition of the word weekend will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofweekend, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
“They can live upon barley-meal without a morsel of meat from week-end to week-end, can these miserable Sawnies,” quoth another.
1903, Francis Markham with Sir Clements Robert Markham, Recollections of a town boy at Westminster, 1849–1855, page 34:
[…] often took a few boys down there for what we North Country folk call the week-end — Saturday and Sunday; it was also used as a sanatorium if required.
I love a phrase of Dizzy's in one of his later letters to Lady Bradford, whom he reproaches for her addiction to what we now call week-end visits to country houses: “the monotony of organized platitude.”
Usage notes
Historically in North America and parts of Europe, people would often work on Saturday as well, or at least until noon on Saturday. Thus the “weekend” might begin at noon or later on Saturday in older texts.
To describe the soonest upcoming weekend:
(UK,Australia,New Zealand) “at the weekend”, “on the weekend”, “this weekend”, “for the weekend”
1886, New Zealand Parliament, “Parliamentary debates”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 324, page 2371:
Let them work at their ordinary jobs during the week, and then take them out of circulation at the weekend, which is usually the time when the trouble is ...
2009, Great Britain House of Commons: Business and Enterprise Committee, “Pre-appointment Hearing with the Chairman-elect of Ofcom, Dr. Colette Bowe”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 16:
Whether it is on the BBC, ITV or commercial radio does not really matter. ...can give you a radio example of two things I was listening to at the weekend.
(US,Canada) “on the weekend”, “this weekend”, “for the weekend” (“at the weekend” is not used)
2002, United States Senate: Committee on Armed Services, Department of Defense authorization for appropriations for fiscal year 2002, page 722:
I am going to Moscow on the weekend to participate in the discussion, ...