ˈterm-day
A day set as a term (term n. 3); a day appointed for doing something, esp. for payment of money due. (In quot. c 1375, a final or concluding day; † but terme day, without end, for ever.) ? Obs. exc. as in b, c.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 14040 Quen it com to þe term dai, Þai had noght quar-of for to pai. c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 730 He had broke his terme day To come to hir. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxxiii. (George) 842 To duel with hyme but terme day. 1470–85 Malory Arthur iv. xxviii. 158 Whan it drewe nygh the terme day that syr gawayn syr Marhaus and syre Vwayne shold mete. |
b. spec. Each of the Scottish quarter-days, esp. Whitsunday and Martinmas day, at which houses are taken, and servants engaged for the summer or winter half-year: see term n. 3 b.
| 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. viii, On the very term-day when their ejection should have taken place. 1893 Westm. Gaz. 5 Apr. 6/3 The understanding..was that the bank which has now stopped might hold out till the 15th of May, which is the Scotch ‘term’ day. 1906 Scot. Rev. 1 Feb. 123/1 Candlemas Day is known to business men in Scotland as one of the quarterly term days. |
c. Each of a series of days appointed for taking systematic scientific observations, e.g. of meteorological phenomena. In quots. attrib.
| 1843 Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. II. 247 To keep up the term⁓day observations. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xiv. 153 note, Who bore the brunt of the term-day observations. |