Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for crack of dawn. Search instead for Lack of rain.
Synonyms

crack of dawn

American  

noun

  1. the part of morning when light first appears in the sky.

crack of dawn Idioms  

  1. Very early morning, daybreak. For example, I got up at the crack of dawn. The crack in this term alludes either to the suddenness of sunrise or to the small wedge of light appearing as the sun rises over the horizon. Originally the term was usually put as crack of day. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Around the crack of dawn, a line begins forming at a strip mall in Hyattsville, Maryland, as residents ranging from students to delivery workers and federal contractors wait to sign up for food assistance.

From Barron's • Feb. 5, 2026

Some shoppers say they got up at the crack of dawn to wait outside their local branches of the coffee chain, only to find they were too late.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

We’re introduced to him not as a thief, but as a doting father who wakes at the crack of dawn, tenderly lays his son in bed next to his sister, and heads off to work.

From Salon • Sep. 7, 2025

Like when I say I sleep in late, that’s 6:30 or 7 a.m. because I like to get up at the crack of dawn.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2025

I’ve never understood those movies that show families up at the crack of dawn, all cheerful because, “Yay, Christmas!”

From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.