adays, a-days, advb. phr.
[a prep.1 on + day's gen. sing. of day. In OE. the gen. dæᵹes was used adverbially = by day, during the day, ‘dæᵹes and nihtes,’ he is anxious ‘day and night.’ Subsequently, the genitive was strengthened by the prep. a = in, on. See a prep.1 8 and day.]
† 1. By day, during the day, in the day-time. Obs.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 278 Antony a dayes · aboute none tyme, Had a bridde þat brouȝte hym bred. 1560 T. Ingelend Disob. Child (1848) 21 With broylynge & burnynge in the kytchyn adayes. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. ii. ii. (1676) 45/1 Pining a daies..waking a nights. 1675 Hobbes Odyssey 59 A-days he weeping sat upon the shore. 1765 T. Ellwood Life (ed. 3) 149 We had also the Liberty of some other Rooms over that Hall, to walk or work in a-Days. |
2. now-a-days: At the present day, during the present time.
| c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. T. 425 Ffor any wit þat men han now a dayes [Camb. MS. on dayes]. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1415 Adayes now, my sone, as men may see, O chirche to o man may nat suffise. c 1449 Pecock Repr. ii. xiii. 227 Peple now adaies ben not to be blamed. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 148 Reason and loue keepe little company together, now-adayes. 1651 Wittie Primrose's Pop. Err. i. ii. 4 But now adayes great is the neglect herein. 1711 Greenwood Eng. Gram. 227 One ought not promiscuously to write every Noun with a great Letter, as is the Fashion of some now adaies. 1856 E. B. Denison Church Bldg. iv. 150 What would nowadays be talked of as a very fine spire. |