Yesterday

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Yesterday \Yes"ter*day\, n. [OE. [yogh]isterdai, AS. geostran
     d[ae]g, from geostran, geostra, giestran, gistran, gystran,
     yesterday (akin to D. gisteren, G. gestern, OHG. gestaron,
     Icel. g[ae]r yesterday, to-morrow, Goth. gistradagis
     to-morrow, L. heri yesterday, Gr. ?, Skr. hyas) + d[ae]g day.
     Cf. {Hestern}. ????.]


     [1913 Webster]
     1. The day last past; the day next before the present.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              All our yesterdays have lighted fools
              The way to dusty death.               --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We are but of yesterday, and know nothing. --Job
                                                    viii. 9.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Fig.: A recent time; time not long past.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when
              compared with the line of supreme pontiffs.
                                                    --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Yesterday \Yes"ter*day\, adv.
     On the day last past; on the day preceding to-day; as, the
     affair took place yesterday.
     [1913 Webster] Yestereve

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  yesterday
       n 1: the day immediately before today; "it was in yesterday's
            newspapers"
       2: the recent past; "yesterday's solutions are not good
          enough"; "we shared many yesterdays"
       adv 1: on the day preceding today; "yesterday the weather was
              beautiful"
       2: in the recent past; only a short time ago; "I was not born
          yesterday!"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  39 Moby Thesaurus words for "yesterday":
     aforetime, before, before now, beforetime, bygone days,
     bygone times, days gone by, dead past, earlier, erenow, erewhile,
     erst, foretime, former times, formerly, heretofore, historically,
     history, hitherto, in the past, in times past, lang syne,
     only yesterday, past, past history, past times, prehistorically,
     previously, priorly, recent past, recently, the irrevocable Past,
     the past, then, thou unrelenting past, times past, whilom,
     yesteryear, yore
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  YESTERDAY, n.  The infancy of youth, the youth of manhood, the entire
  past of age.
  
      But yesterday I should have thought me blest
          To stand high-pinnacled upon the peak
          Of middle life and look adown the bleak
      And unfamiliar foreslope to the West,
      Where solemn shadows all the land invest
          And stilly voices, half-remembered, speak
          Unfinished prophecy, and witch-fires freak
      The haunted twilight of the Dark of Rest.
      Yea, yesterday my soul was all aflame
          To stay the shadow on the dial's face
      At manhood's noonmark!  Now, in God His name
          I chide aloud the little interspace
      Disparting me from Certitude, and fain
      Would know the dream and vision ne'er again.
                                                        Baruch Arnegriff
  
      It is said that in his last illness the poet Arnegriff was
  attended at different times by seven doctors.