holiday

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

• noun A day free from work that one may spend at leisure, especially a day on which custom or the law dictates a halting of general business activity to commemorate or celebrate a particular event.
• noun A religious feast day; a holy day.
• noun Chiefly British A vacation. Often used in the phrase on holiday.
• intransitive verb To pass a holiday or vacation.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To make holiday; go pleasuring; waste time in play.
• noun A consecrated day; a religious anniversary; a day set apart for commemorating some important event or in honor of some person.
• noun An occasion of joy and gaiety.
• noun A day of exemption from labor, or of recreation and amusement; a day or a number of days during which ordinary occupations are suspended, either by an individual or by a community.
• noun Nautical, a spot carelessly left uncoated in tarring or painting a ship or its appurtenances.
• Pertaining to a festival; befitting a holiday; cheerful; joyous; hence, suited only to a holiday; dainty; not fitted for serious action or life.
• noun The Christmas season.

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

• adjective Of or pertaining to a festival; cheerful; joyous; gay.
• adjective Occurring rarely; adapted for a special occasion.
• noun A consecrated day; religious anniversary; a day set apart in honor of some person, or in commemoration of some event. See holyday.
• noun A day of exemption from labor; a day of amusement and gayety; a festival day.
• noun (Law) A day fixed by law for suspension of business; a legal holiday.
• noun any fixed or usual period for relaxation or festivity; especially, Christmas and New Year's day with the intervening time.

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

• noun A day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.
• noun A day declared free from work by the government.
• noun A period of one or more days taken off work by an employee for leisure.
• noun A period during which pupils and students do not attend their school or university.
• noun A period taken off work or study for travel.
• verb To take a period of time away from work or study.
• verb UK To spend a period of time for travel.

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

• noun leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure
• verb spend or take a vacation
• noun a day on which work is suspended by law or custom