Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The first day of May: a day on which the opening of the season of flowers and fruit was formerly celebrated throughout Europe: it is still marked in some places by various festive observances.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Ai tihnk wi ozzyz miss owt on moast ob tohse sellebraishenz; mid-summa, may-day !

    Electrics bill - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2010

  • Took out the garbage I'm voluntarily doing chores that are my brother's usual jobs... may-day, may-day!

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you know -- you know, Anderson, right when everything happened, his plan that he had kind of went awry when he didn't figure, when he called his may-day signal, that he would be intercepted by military jets and they saw the door open in the cockpit and the cockpit dark.

    CNN Transcript Jan 13, 2009 2009

  • Took out the garbage I'm voluntarily doing chores that are my brother's usual jobs... may-day, may-day!

    I am never more productive than when I'm procrastinating 2009

  • But now, for the first time in her career, she said, “May-day, may-day, Lear Six Niner Five Foxtrot Bravo.”

    A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set Jeffery Deaver 2001

  • But now, for the first time in her career, she said, "May-day, may-day, Lear Six Niner Five Foxtrot Bravo."

    The Coffin Dancer Deaver, Jeffery 1998

  • Passengers were trapped inside the ship in the chaotic hour after the ship tore a hole in its hull, with the captain harshly criticised for issuing a may-day signal and the order to abandon ship too late.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Nick Squires 2012

  • Passengers were trapped inside the ship in the chaotic hour after the ship tore a hole in its hull, with the captain harshly criticised for issuing a may-day signal and the order to abandon ship too late.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Nick Squires 2012

  • Mr Malane, 60, from Bonnet Bay, sent out a may-day call shortly after 10am yesterday before circling and then nosediving into rough surf 50m off Curl Curl, The Daily Telegraph reported.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2011

  • Mr. Lawrence in a letter to Mr. Bradley complains that the dale-mist attended with a frost on may-day had destroyed all his tender fruits; though there was a sharper frost the night before without a mist, that did him no injury; and adds, that a garden not a stone's throw from his own on a higher situation, being above the dale-mist, had received no damage.

    The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation Erasmus Darwin 1766

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