dawn on

Idioms  

1. Also, dawn upon. Become evident or understood, as in It finally dawned on him that he was expected to call them, or Around noon it dawned upon me that I had never eaten breakfast. This expression transfers the beginning of daylight to the beginning of a thought process. Harriet Beecher Stowe had it in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852): “The idea that they had either feelings or rights had never dawned upon her.” [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dawn on

It may dawn on you that this heroic artifact is a vulnerable, handmade thing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

At dawn on the rooftop, alarms of the few cell phones that still have battery wake the neighbors one by one.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

The Perseids is active from mid-July to 23 August, but the best time to catch the display is between midnight and dawn on 12 and 13 August.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

There were no immediate reports of any casualties in the incident, which took place before dawn on Tuesday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

An hour past dawn on the following Monday, a thick, grandly muscled woman arrived on the back steps of the Meecham house and waited for the sleeping house to stir.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

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