Meaning of holiday in English

holiday

noun

/ˈhɒl.ə.deɪ/ us

/ˈhɑː.lə.deɪ/

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A1 [ C or U ] UK

(UK informal holidays); (UK informal hols); (US vacation)

a time when someone does not go to work or school but is free to do what they want, such as travel or relax:

a camping/skiing holiday

for your holiday Have you decided where you're going for your holiday(s) this year?

on holiday Patricia is on holiday next week.

go on holiday Where are you going on holiday?

How many days' holiday do you get with your new job?

summer holiday We thought we'd go to France for our summer holiday.

school holiday Surely the school holidays start soon.

B1 [ C ]

an official day when you do not have to go to work or school:

a public holiday

St Patrick's Day is a holiday in Ireland.

a time when you are allowed not to make a regular payment such as a mortgage payment (= money that has been lent to buy a house, paid back regularly):

payment holiday The flexible features of this mortgage allow the borrower to make overpayments and take payment holidays.

repayment holiday We arranged a flexible business loan with a two year capital repayment holiday which gave us the breathing space we needed.

mortgage holiday Struggling homeowners were handed more support as the UK's biggest banks agreed to offer a mortgage holiday to those unable to meet payments.

holidays

[ plural ] US

the time at the end of December and beginning of January each year that includes Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year :

We were at home for the holidays.

More examplesFewer examples

After all that hard work, you deserve a holiday.
The Caribbean is a popular holiday destination.
Give me a call when you get back from holiday.
You can win a holiday for two in the south of France just by answering three simple questions.
We can't really afford foreign holidays.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Tourism & holidays

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Time off

Borrowing & lending

Specific periods of time

Grammar

Holiday and holidays

Holiday as a singular noun commonly refers to a specific day or event: …

holiday

verb [ I usually + adv/prep ]

/ˈhɒl.ə.deɪ/ us

/ˈhɑː.lə.deɪ/

(US vacation)

to take a holiday:

holiday in My parents are holidaying in Spain this year.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Tourism & holidays

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Time off

Grammar

Holiday and holidays

Holiday as a singular noun commonly refers to a specific day or event: …

(Definition of holiday from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

holiday | American Dictionary

holiday

noun [ C ]

/ˈhɑl·ɪˌdeɪ/

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a day for celebration when many people are allowed to stay away from work or school:

a national holiday

CdnBr A holiday is a vacation.

(Definition of holiday from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

holiday | Business English

holiday

noun

/ˈhɒlədeɪ/ us

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[ C ] UK

( US vacation)

a time when you are away from home, and can relax, visit new places, etc.:

go on holiday Are you going away on holiday this year?

Online holiday sales are up 28% compared with the same period last year.

a holiday company

holiday insurance

[ C ] HR UK

(also holidays [ plural ]); ( US vacation)

a time when someone does not go to work but is free to do what they want, such as travel or relax:

My PA does most of my work when I'm on holiday.

She had already used all her holiday entitlement.

holiday pay

the summer holidays

How many days of vacation do you get a year?

[ C ]

an official day when most people do not go to work and schools, banks and many businesses are closed:

Wall Street was closed for a public holiday.

May 1 is a holiday in many countries.

the holidays [ plural ] (US also the holiday season [ S ])

the period between late December and early January that includes Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year:

Online sales were buoyant during the holidays.

[ C ] FINANCE UK

a time when you do not have to pay something that you usually have to pay:

take a holiday from sth If you are in financial difficulties, ask your bank whether you can take a holiday from interest repayments.

a tax/contribution/mortgage holiday

Examples of holiday

holiday

As children were assumed to spend weekends and holidays with parents, no school-related clothing was included.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The second cause was due to public and statutory holidays.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In addition to public holidays, one day a month was lost for machine servicing.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On the holidays, wherever he camped, one hundred tents would join him.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They protested over immediate or relatively shortterm issues like ad hoc demands over wage hikes, holidays, dismissals or restoration of allowances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moreover, there are 52 weeks in a year, and excluding holidays and planned and unplanned downtime, there were approximately 50 possible procedure weeks per year.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the number of religious holidays was gradually reduced, sometimes by the state and sometimes by the churches themselves.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Education and holidays also feature largely in this selection of theses on children and cities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Except for limitations on work on religious holidays, official regulation of the daily and weekly round declined.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, a trade union might offer discounts on holidays to its members, and threaten non-members with ostracism.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Events like remembering visits by relatives, birthdays or holidays were used by another 18 % to aid memory.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We asked children about their school, family, home, holidays, and medical history.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She says they ' caught up ' at weekends and on holidays.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Which friend did the man repair the roof for during the holidays?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Which ladder did the man repair the roof with during the holidays?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of holiday

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with holiday

holiday

These are words often used in combination with holiday.

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annual holiday

For example, the non-resident parent is assumed to take his contact children on his annual holiday.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

extended holiday

Some people will want to let their houses for less than 12 months; for example, when on an extended holiday or when working abroad.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

happy holiday

It is therefore my pleasant task to join in wishing everyone a happy holiday.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with holiday

What is the pronunciation of holiday?

Translations of holiday

in Chinese (Traditional)

假期，假日, 法定假日，節日, 去度假…

Meaning of holiday in English

Grammar

Grammar

holiday | American Dictionary

holiday | Business English

See also

Examples of holiday

Collocations with holiday

holiday

Translations of holiday

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