yesterday

plural yesterdays

1. countableuncountableThe day immediately before today; one day ago.

   Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow.

   5 more examples

   Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow.

   Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …

   1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish

   At a luncheon given yesterday at the Park Lane by Andrew H. Mars of Brooklyn for the Misses Marjorie Heather and Miriam Snyder, announcement was made of the engagement of his daughter, Miss Gladys L. Mars, to H. Grell Powers of this city.

   1929 November 21, “Miss Mars to Wed H. Grell Powers: Her Troth to New Yorker Is Announced by Her Father at a Luncheon at Park Lane. […]”, in The New York Times, volume LXXIX, number 26,234, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Sep 2025, page 23, column 6

   Yesterday / All my troubles seemed so far away / Now it looks as though they're here to stay / Oh, I believe in yesterday

   1965, Paul McCartney, “Yesterday”, in Help!

   Across the city yesterday, there was a feeling of bittersweet reunion as streams of humanity converged and mingled at dozens of memorial services.

   2006 September 11, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Bush Mourns 9/11 at Ground Zero as N.Y. Remembers”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2011

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableThe past, often in terms of being outdated.

   yesterday's technology

   3 more examples

   The worker of today is different from that of yesterday.

   All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]

   Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

   2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2013, page 76

1. not comparableOn the day before today.

   I started to watch the video yesterday, but could only finish it this evening.

   Synonyms: the last day · Antonyms: tomorrow

2. informalnot comparableAs soon as possible.

   I need it yesterday!

   2 more examples

   I want this done yesterday!

   "Europeans need to get to work yesterday and to focus," she says. "They have 5-10 years to stand on their own two feet in terms of conventional defence capabilities."

   2026 February 16, Katya Adler, “Trump's new world order has become real and Europe is having to adjust fast”, in BBC, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2026