ˈdaybreak
[Cf. break v. 41 and n.1 2.]
The first appearance of light in the morning; dawn.
| 1530 Palsgr. 804/1 At daye breake, au jour creuer. 1683 Burnet tr. More's Utopia (1684) 81 It is ordinary to have Publick Lectures every Morning before day-break. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 17 Between daybreak and sunrise. |
| attrib. 1825 Waterton Wand. S. Amer. i. i. 99 The crowing of the hannaquoi will sound in thine ears like the daybreak town-clock. |
So
† ˈday-breaking, the breaking of the day.
| 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. i. xiv. (1622) 26 At day breaking, the legions..abandoned their standings. 1647 (title), The Day-breaking if not the Sun-rising of the Gospel with the Indians in New England. |