October

plural Octobers · alternative abbreviation Oct · alternative abbreviation Oct. · alternative abbreviation OCT · alternative obsolete Octobre

1. The tenth month of the Gregorian calendar, following September and preceding November.

   Holonyms: calendar year; year

   1 more example

   By October it was advancing steadily toward Pangwa, encountering meager resistance.

   2025 July 18, Timothy McLaughlin, “A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border. The Kachin Independence Organization fought for decades in obscurity. Now it's supplying essential minerals to manufacturers around the world”, in Bloomberg Businessweek, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2025

   Synonyms: Tenth Month

2. rareA female given name transferred from the month name.

   The other one [book] I just read is October Suite by Maxine Clair (Random House, $23.95). It's about a woman named October. She's a young black schoolteacher in the 1950s ...

   2002 January, Cincinnati Magazine, volume 35, number 4, page 138

   1 more example

   From somewhere in the distance came the screaming whine of an emergency vehicle's siren. Lance flipped open his phone. “Get me the address of a woman named October Guinness . . . That's right, October,” he said again, [...]

   2009, C.S. Graham, The Archangel Project, →ISBN, page 31

alternative abbreviation Oct · alternative abbreviation Oct. · alternative abbreviation OCT · alternative obsolete Octobre

1. historicaluncountableA type of ale traditionally brewed in October.First known use 18th c.

   Sir, if I vvas vvorthy to adviſe you, I vvou'd have a Bottle of good October by me. Shall I ſet a Cup of old Stingo at your Elbovv?

   1716 March 21 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], The Drummer; or, The Haunted House. A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1716 (indicated as 1715), →OCLC, Act V, page 46

   2 more examples

   [T]he gate of a large chateau, of a most noble and venerable appearance […] induced them to alight and view the apartments, contrary to their first intention of drinking a glass of his October at the door.

   1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

   Sir George, borne along in his chair, peered up at this well-known window--well-known, since in the Oxford of 1767 a man's rooms were furnished if he had tables and chairs, store of beef and October, an apple-pie and Common Room port—and seeing the casement brilliantly lighted, smiled a trifle contemptuously.

   1898, Stanley John Weyman, “III. Tutor and Pupils”, in The Castle Inn

present singular third person Octobers · participle present Octobering · participle past Octobered · past Octobered · alternative abbreviation Oct · alternative abbreviation Oct. · alternative abbreviation OCT · alternative obsolete Octobre

1. historicaltransitiveIn the early Soviet Union, to give (a child) a name tinged with Soviet revolutionary thought, as opposed to religious christening.