day-dawn

day-dawn (countable and uncountable, plural day-dawns)

1. (archaic) The rising of the sun; the time when the sun rises.

   Synonym: dawn

   • 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.

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

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

   • 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:

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

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

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

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

     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.