matins
Britishnoun
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RC Church the first of the seven canonical hours of prayer, originally observed at night but now often recited with lauds at daybreak
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the service of morning prayer in the Church of England
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literary a morning song, esp of birds
Etymology
Origin of matins
C13: from Old French, ultimately from Latin mātūtīnus of the morning, from Mātūta goddess of dawn
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.
Those moments once felt sacred, like matins, the quiet prelude to a day of work.
From Slate • Apr. 12, 2021
As I recall, there was a lot of tension between those who wanted a quiet life of matins and evensong running along like liturgical clockwork, and those who wanted to bring in “new life.”
From The New Yorker • Nov. 30, 2014
I went to Marlborough College in Wiltshire, and they had a beautiful chapel where we had matins most days.
From The Guardian • Jun. 9, 2014
When several monks failed to appear for matins at 4 a.m., for example, the brothers examined the need to make the prayer more their own.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ed Mills woke to arthritic cramps that made each morning a matins of pain for him.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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.
