break of day

break of day

1. Daybreak.

   At the break of day.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet XXIX”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
     Like to the lark at break of day arising
     From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate.

   • 1897, James M. Barrie, chapter 5, in Margaret Ogilvy:

     Well, with break of day she wakes and sits up in bed.

   • 1920, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter 6, in The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum:

     "You've got to rise 'fore break of day
     If you want to fool old Mr. Jay."

   • 2001 August 6, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, “Wailing Over Whales”, in Time:

     Wholesale buyers and curious onlookers pack Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market at the break of day.

• break of dawn, daybreak; see also Thesaurus:dawn

• “break of day”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.