day-dawn

plural day-dawns

1. archaiccountableuncountableThe rising of the sun; the time when the sun rises.

   1650, Thomas Shepard, Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The Doctrine of the Sabbath, London: John Rothwell, Thesis 54, p. 52, […] Matthew […] affirms that this Day-light or Day-dawn was the End of the Sabbath.

   4 more examples

   At day-dawn I looked thro’ the key-hole of my Beloved’s door.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 247

   For like a day-dawn she was young and pure,

   1823 December 17, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos XII.—XIII.—and XIV., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto XII, stanza 41, page 13

   Full many a score that lone maid counted o’er Of day-dawns and night-falls—a year to the day—

   1850 May, Jonathan Freke Slingsby, “Welcome as Flowers in May”, in The Dublin University Magazine, volume 35, number 209, page 557

   Before day-dawn, Judge Thatcher and the handful of searchers with him were tracked out, in the cave, by the twine clews they had strung behind them, and informed of the great news.

   1876, Mark Twain, chapter 32, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford: American Publishing Company, page 250

   Synonyms: dawn