dawn

1 noun (C, U)

1 the time at the beginning of the day when light first appears: We talked almost until dawn. | at dawn: The first boats set off at dawn. | dawn breaks (=the first light of the day appears): When dawn broke we were still 50 miles from Calcutta. | at the crack of dawn (=very early in the morning): I was up at the crack of dawn to get the plane.

—compare dusk

2 the dawn of civilization/time etc the time when something began or first appeared: People have been falling in love since the dawn of time.

3 a false dawn something that seems positive or hopeful but really is not: another false dawn on the road to recovery

2 verb (I)

1 if day or morning dawns, it begins: The morning dawned fresh and clear after the storm.

2 literary if a period of time or situation dawns, it begins: The age of Darwin had dawned.

3 formal if a feeling or idea dawns, you think of it for the first time

dawn on sb phrasal verb (transitive not in passive) if a fact dawns on you, you realise it for the first time: Then the ghastly truth dawned on me. | it dawns on sb that: It dawned on me that Joanna had been right all along.