Meanings
plural yestreens · alternative yestereen · alternative yestere'en
- ScotlandarchaicpoeticThe night before; last night.
Late yestreen I saw the new moon, the old moon in her arms
"Sir Patrick Spens," traditional Scottish ballad3 more examples
It was the creature Dougal that extricated me, as he did yestreen […]
1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 95Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person.
1916 September 16 – November 11, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim, 1st British edition, London: Herbert Jenkins […], published May 1918, →OCLC, page 70You have not forgotten our telephone conversation of yestreen, Jeeves?
1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLCSynonyms: list in yestereve
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe night before; last night.
Origin
- Old Englishġiestranǣfen“yesterday evening”
- Middle Englishyestreen
- Englishyestreen
From Middle English yestreen, alteration of yestereven (“last night, yesterday evening”), from Old English ġiestranǣfen (“yesterday evening”), equivalent to yester- + e'en (“evening”). Cognate with West Frisian justerjûn (“yestreen; last night”).
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
yestreen. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yestreen
“yestreen.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yestreen. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “yestreen,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yestreen.
Source: yestreen on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.