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Synonyms

red-letter day

British  

noun

  1. a memorably important or happy occasion

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
red-letter day Cultural  

  1. A special or memorable day; the expression refers to the old custom of printing holidays in red on calendars: “John got promoted and engaged to be married yesterday; it was truly a red-letter day for him.”

red-letter day Idioms  

  1. A special occasion, as in When Jack comes home from his tour of duty, that'll be a red-letter day. This term alludes to the practice of marking feast days and other holy days in red on church calendars, dating from the 1400s. [c. 1700]

Etymology

Origin of red-letter day

C18: from the red letters used in ecclesiastical calendars to indicate saints' days and feasts

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.

Red letter day in the Red career of big, soft, heavy-eyed. 48-year-old Benjamin Gitlow came on May 14, 1929.

From Time Magazine Archive

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.