Plough Monday

British

noun

the first Monday after Epiphany, which in N and E England used to be celebrated with a procession of ploughmen drawing a plough from house to house

"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

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.

Originally it was held on the Tuesday following Plough Monday - the first Monday after Twelfth Night.

From BBC • Jan. 13, 2024

A village is due to mark 50 years since it revived the ancient rural tradition of Plough Monday.

From BBC • Jan. 9, 2022

For the first time in 300 years, the British festival of Plough Monday was being celebrated.

From Time Magazine Archive

The men, however, could not settle down to work so speedily, serious work not beginning till after "Plough Monday," or the Monday after Twelfth Day.

From A Righte Merrie Christmasse The Story of Christ-Tide by Behrend, Arthur C.

Presently the chamberlain came and informed me that a party of country lads were in the servants' hall, performing Plough Monday antics, and invited me to witness their mummery.

From Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey by Irving, Washington

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