Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Christian feast observed on September 29 in honor of the archangel Michael.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A festival celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican, and some other churches on September 29th, in honor of the archangel Michael.
  • noun September the 29th as one of the four quarter-days in England on which rents are paid.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The feast of the archangel Michael, a church festival, celebrated on the 29th of September. Hence, colloquially, autumn.
  • noun (Bot.) See under Daisy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Christian feast in honour of the archangel Michael
  • noun 29th September, the day it is celebrated

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun honoring the archangel Michael; a quarter day in England, Wales, and Ireland

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mychelmesse, from Old English (Sanct) Michaeles mæsse, (Saint) Michael's mass : Michaeles, genitive of Michael, the archangel Michael + mæsse, Mass; see Mass.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Michael +‎ -mas

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Michaelmas.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.