yesteryear

[ yes-ter-yeer, -yeer ]
See synonyms for yesteryear on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. last year.

  2. the recent years; time not long past.

adverb
  1. during time not long past.

Origin of yesteryear

1
yester- + year; apparently introduced by D.G. Rossetti (1870) to render Middle French antan (Villon)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use yesteryear in a sentence

  • As a man's mental force is the result of yesteryears' upbuilding, so his strength of to-day is the result of last week's eating.

    My Attainment of the Pole | Frederick A. Cook

British Dictionary definitions for yesteryear

yesteryear

/ (ˈjɛstəˌjɪə) formal, or literary /


noun
  1. last year or the past in general

adverb
  1. during last year or the past in general

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