unholiday

plural unholidays

1. A day or period of time which is not a holiday, but is celebrated as if it were one.

   Today we declare an unholiday. We'll take a break from all our play.

   2015, Douglas Evans, Children's Games, page 122

   3 more examples

   Yet the most touching gifts are often the ones that come as unbirthday or unholiday or unanniverary gifts.

   2013, Patricia Spadaro, Honor Yourself: The Inner Art of Giving and Receiving, →ISBN

   I guess this unholiday is exactly what we all needed today, she thought as she pulled into the driveway.

   2014, Lorraine Turner, Calico Horses and the Patchwork Trail, →ISBN

   It being your unbirthday then you must be invited to boogie at the bank unholiday.

   2015, Douglas Gilbert, Alice In Wunderkinderland With a Hedgehog, →ISBN

comparative more unholiday · superlative most unholiday

1. Grim or drab; the antithesis of festive.

   O that unholiday look of English countenances, how sad it is!

   1856, Frederick William Faber, The Blessed Sacrament Or the Works and Ways of God, page 224

   3 more examples

   An air of gaiety and festal enjoyment, which contrasts singularly with the unholiday appearance of men and things in the interior of the country, reigns on the waters of the bays and rivers in the vicinity of the cities to a surprising degree.

   1835, Charles Joseph Latrobe, The Rambler In North America Vol. I, page 30

   But the other day I took it out for reference; and now as I am holiday- making in a certain little backwater of the world, where it is raining in a most unholiday fashion, it occurs to me that, as everything has happened to me which is likely to happen (Heaven knows I want no more excursions and alarums in my life's drama), I may as well bring the narrative up to date.

   2008, William J. Locke, Simon the Jester, →ISBN

   Even the unholiday drabness of the homespun dress could not dim the expectation with which she set out soon after daybreak.

   2010, Rosita G. Fanto, Lady of the Cards, →ISBN

   Synonyms: lackluster, wan, banal, basic, mindless, beat, blah, commonplace