Twelfth Night


noun
  1. the evening before Twelfth Day, formerly observed with various festivities.

  2. the evening of Twelfth Day itself.

  1. (italics) a comedy (1602) by Shakespeare.

Origin of Twelfth Night

1
before 900; Middle English; Old English

Words Nearby Twelfth Night

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Twelfth Night in a sentence

  • He had broken his leg the evening before on his way home from a Twelfth-night feast at a neighbour's.

    Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert
  • Do you know this is Twelfth-night—the night for telling fortunes?

    Throckmorton | Molly Elliot Seawell
  • During the entire twelve months there is no such illumination of pastry-cooks' shops, as on Twelfth-night.

    The Book of Christmas | Thomas K. Hervey
  • The Twelfth-Night cake, crowned with candles, is cut and eaten with many ceremonies on this occasion.

    The Art of Entertaining | M. E. W. Sherwood
  • Mother Coupeau, who had coughed and choked all through December, was obliged to take to her bed after Twelfth-night.

    L'Assommoir | Emile Zola

British Dictionary definitions for Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

noun
    • the evening of Jan 5, the eve of Twelfth Day, formerly observed with various festal celebrations

    • the evening of Twelfth Day itself

    • (as modifier): Twelfth-Night customs

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

Cultural definitions for Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

A comedy by William Shakespeare. The two central characters are a twin brother and sister; each thinks that the other has been lost at sea. The sister disguises herself as a boy and goes to serve the duke of the country, a bitter man disappointed in love. The brother reappears and marries the woman whom the duke has been pursuing, and his sister marries the duke. Twelfth Night begins with the line “If music be the food of love, play on.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.