holiday

«holiday» in Mova's school dictionary: a day when people do not go to school or work, often… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (holiday, holidays); verb (holiday, holidays, holidayed, holidaying — mostly British)

meaning for a pupil

1) A holiday is a day when people do not go to school or work, often because of a special event, like a public holiday. tree →

2) A holiday is a trip you take for fun and rest, away from home (in American English this is a vacation). tree →

3) The holidays are a longer time off school, like the summer holidays. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths, a span of days or weeks counted (days left, days per week), or money spent on a trip (cost per day, per person). In everyday life: school holidays, public holidays, going on holiday to the beach, packing a suitcase. In safety: sun cream and swimming rules on holiday. In stories, a holiday is often where an adventure happens. Phrases: «on holiday», «go on holiday», «the summer holidays», «a public holiday», «holiday homework».

examples

• The holiday lasts 14 days. tree →
• They spent 300 dollars on holiday. tree →
• She read 2 books a week during the holidays. tree →
• How many days of the holiday are left? tree →
• We are going on holiday to the seaside. tree →
• Monday is a public holiday, so there is no school. tree →
• In the summer holidays we went camping. tree →
• He sent us a postcard from his holiday. tree →
• Thanksgiving is a big holiday in the USA and Canada. tree →
• On all their holidays, the Pygmies had excellent sport with Antaeus. tree →

note

Countable: a holiday, two holidays. «On holiday» (British) = «on vacation» (American); in the USA «the holidays» often means the winter festive time. A time span: days per week, days left, money per day. Trap: «2 weeks of holiday» must be changed to 14 days when the rate is per day. A week is 7 days.

In the corpora

• A honeymoon is a holiday a couple takes just after the wedding, to rest and celebrate, just the two of them.
• He spent his holiday in rainy Skegness.
• Dogs get stressed when a routine suddenly changes, for example when the holidays end.
• He feels like the only one on holiday, and that is half the fun.
• "Happy holidays" (mostly US) is a seasonal greeting that avoids naming Christmas.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «holiday» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.