Shrovetide
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What is Shrovetide? Shrovetide is the three-day period before the beginning of Lent, which is the season of fasting and penitence that precedes Easter. Shrovetide consists of Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and is the most well-known of the days of Shrovetide due to the tradition of eating pancakes on that day. Shrove Tuesday is sometimes called Pancake Day for this reason.
Etymology
Origin of Shrovetide
First recorded in 1375–1425, Shrovetide is from the late Middle English word shroftyde. See shrove, tide 1
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.
The last Royal Shrovetide Football match, involving thousands of players competing to move a ball to opposite ends of the town, took place just before the pandemic took hold, in 2020.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2022
Probably the biggest game in the country takes place in Ashbourne where the 16-hour Royal Shrovetide Football match takes place over two days.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2020
Shrovetide: Beauty in Eye of Beholder The beautiful game was, and is not always, beautiful.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2013
An outspoken cleric known for his liberal views calls it a "legal outrage" during Shrovetide week, when church tradition allows and even encourages carnival-like escapades and jokes.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2012
Among their plats was one of pancakes, made right artistically, and as though in regard of Shrovetide.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847 by Various
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.
