dawn on

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]

Example Sentences

Before dawn on March 1, 1954, a Japanese fishing boat named Lucky Dragon drifted in calm South Pacific waters.

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Hundreds of rescuers dug through the rubble and the bodies of two children were uncovered on Wednesday and those of their two parents at dawn on Thursday.

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At dawn on Thursday, PM 2.5 levels were 154 micrograms per cubic metre in parts of New Delhi, according to monitoring organisation IQAir, just more than 10 times World Health Organization limits.

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The "Salt Cellar", a golden sculpture made by Florentine artist Benvenuto Cellini in 1543 for King of France Francis I, disappeared from Vienna's Museum of Fine Arts at dawn on May 12, 2003.

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The Hawaii Department of Transportation said the operation to remove the ship began at dawn on Wednesday and it was sunk about 25 miles south of the harbour.

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Related Words

• affect 
• carry 
• get 
• hit 
• move 
• reach 
• touch