fast-day
[f. fast n.1 + day; cf. fasten-day s.v. fasten n.]
A day to be observed as a fast.
In some New England States spec. the day appointed every spring by the governor for fasting. sacramental fast-day (Scotland): a fast observed on one day in the week preceding the yearly or half-yearly Communion Sunday; until about 1886 business was generally suspended on these days as on Sundays.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 27210 (Fairf.) In halitide or fast-day. 1643 in Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1704) II. 289 Stir them up, the next Fast-day to the chearful taking of it. 1724 R. Falconer Voy. (1769) 232 It was some Fast-day with them. 1841 Trench Parables xxix. (1864) 479 Moses appointed but one fast-day in the year. |
| attrib. 1866 Lowell Commencement Dinner Poems 1890 IV. 256 A Fast Day discourse. |