now-a-days, adv.
[f. now adv. + adays 2. Now freq. written without hyphens as one word.]
1. At the present day, in these times.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 37 Lecherie and losengrie..beoþ gamus nou A dayes. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 291 As men mai finde nou adaies. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 53 Men of these maners there be now a dayes to mani. 1474 Caxton Chesse 30 The lawes nowadayes ben not executed but vpon the poure peple. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxxxi. 252 Now a dayes can not be founde trew frendes as were wont to be. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 19, I cannot but lament the small preferment now adaies that learning getteth in the world. 1611 Bible 1 Sam. xxv. 10 There bee many seruants now a daies that breake away. 1658 A. Fox Würtz' Surg. ii. Introd. 43 Yet have I not related all the abuses which are practised and committed now adayes. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 481 ¶4 Lacqueys were never so saucy and pragmatical, as they are now-a-days. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) l. vi. 226 We speak of good housewifery now a days. 1833 H. Martineau Berkeley the Banker i. i. 21 Guineas are scarce now-a-days. 1893 Law Times XCV. 248/1 The Crown has certain privileges which appear somewhat anomalous nowadays. |
b. attrib.| 1609 J. Rawlinson Fishermen 32 Such indeed..is our now-adaies religion. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 2 Mar. 2/1 These nowadays parsons are just a set of fussing insurance agents. |
c. As
n.| 1645 Milton Tetrach. 26 Not partly right and partly wrong,..as Divines of now adaies dare censure them. 1647 tr. Maloezzi's Pourtract 94 The Phisitians of now a dayes. 1852 Hawthorne Wonder Bk. (1879) 121 In the orchards of nowadays. |
2. In variant forms
now o' († of, or † on) days.
| [1390 Gower Conf. II. 59 On daies nou The blinde god..set the thinges in discord.] c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxviii. 128 Þis myracle..schuld stirre Cristen men to be mare deuote..þan þai er now on days. c 1440 Alph. Tales 16 Bod monkis er not so now o dayis. Ibid. 73 So it happens oft sithes now-of-dayes. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 486 Men wald be..meikar als than now on dais tha ar. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 223 Such as our princes & noble menne have nowe of dayes. |
| 1819 Metropolis III. 81 No one comes to hear the play now o' days. |
So
now-a-nights.
| 1841 Thoreau Let. 21 July in Corr. (1958) 45 Now-a-nights I go on to the hill. 1847 F. A. Kemble Rec. Later Life III. 289 Murray's Handbook..and the foreign ‘Bradshaw’. These furnish my lullaby now-a-nights. 1920 Beerbohm And Even Now 120 The Golden Drugget is not outspread nowanights across the high dark coast-road between Rapallo and Zoagli. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake 15 And still nowanights and by nights of yore do all bold floras..say only: Cull me ere I wilt to thee! |