Sunday

after Saturday comes Sunday

A translation of a rare Arabic phrase attributed to militant Islamic extremists, meaning that Jews (who celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday) will be killed first, followed by Christians (whose Sabbath is on Sunday). We weren't sure of the safety of the area, but when we saw the phrase "After Saturday Comes Sunday" graffitied on the wall, we knew we should leave.See also: after, come, Saturday, Sunday

from here to Sunday

1. All over the place; over a very wide area or distance. I shudder to think of shopping on Black Friday, when every store from here to Sunday is crawling with consumers. When I saw my brother get off the train, I had a smile on my face from here to Sunday.2. At great length; as much as possible. My father cussed me out from here to Sunday when he found out I'd taken the car without his permission last night. This book is boring me from here to Sunday, but I have to give a report on it next week.See also: here, Sunday

eight ways from Sunday

Thoroughly or completely; in every possible way; from every conceivable angle. Everyone had their money on the reigning champion, but he was beaten eight ways from Sunday by the newcomer. We researched the case eight ways from Sunday, but there didn't seem to be any way that we could win with the evidence at hand.See also: eight, Sunday, way

eight ways to Sunday

Thoroughly or completely; in every possible way; from every conceivable angle. Everyone had their money on the reigning champion, but he was beaten eight ways to Sunday by the newcomer. We researched the case eight ways to Sunday, but there didn't seem to be any way that we could win with the evidence at hand.See also: eight, Sunday, way

forty ways from Sunday

Thoroughly or completely; in every possible way; from every conceivable angle. Everyone had their money on the reigning champion, but he was beaten forty ways from Sunday by the newcomer. We researched the case forty ways from Sunday, but there didn't seem to be any way that we could win with the evidence at hand.See also: forty, Sunday, way

forty ways to Sunday

Thoroughly or completely; in every possible way; from every conceivable angle. Everyone had their money on the reigning champion, but he was beaten forty ways to Sunday by the newcomer. We researched the case forty ways to Sunday, but there didn't seem to be any way that we could win with the evidence at hand.See also: forty, Sunday, way

six ways from Sunday

Thoroughly or completely; in every possible way; from every conceivable angle. Everyone had their money on the reigning champion, but he was beaten six ways from Sunday by the newcomer. We researched the case six ways from Sunday, but there didn't seem to be any way that we could win with the evidence at hand.See also: six, Sunday, way

six ways to Sunday

Thoroughly or completely; in every possible way; from every conceivable angle. Everyone had their money on the reigning champion, but he was beaten six ways to Sunday by the newcomer. We researched the case six ways to Sunday, but there didn't seem to be any way that we could win with the evidence at hand.See also: six, Sunday, way

(one's) Sunday finest

One's very best clothes, as one would wear to a Sunday church service. Instead of some big party, let's all get dressed up in our Sunday finest and go for lunch at a fancy restaurant for my birthday! This is going to be a formal event, so please come dressed in your Sunday finest.See also: fin, Sunday

(one's) Sunday best

One's very best clothes, as one would wear to a Sunday church service. Instead of some big party, let's all get dressed up in our Sunday best and go for lunch at a fancy restaurant for my birthday! This is going to be a formal event, so please come dressed in your Sunday best.See also: Sunday

a week tomorrow/on (some day)/etc.

One week from the day specified. Primarily heard in UK. I'm flying to Ireland a week on Saturday for my brother's wedding. We need that report finished a week tomorrow.See also: on, tomorrow, week

a week yesterday/last (some day)/etc.

One week before the day specified. They only gave me the assignment a week yesterday, so I'm really stressed out about getting it finished by tomorrow. Chris left on his work trip a week last Tuesday.See also: last, week, yesterday

(one's) Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes

One's very best clothes, as one might wear to a Sunday church service. Instead of some big party, let's all get dressed up in our Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and go for lunch at a fancy restaurant for my birthday! This is going to be a formal event, so please come dressed in your Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. The only time we got dressed up in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and went to mass was for Christmas and Easter.See also: clothes

Sunday driver

An aggravatingly slow driver. Likened to one out for a leisurely "Sunday drive." For the most part, I like the relaxed attitude down here. But I absolutely detest all the Sunday drivers on the road! It took me nearly an extra hour to get home because I got stuck behind some Sunday driver.See also: driver, Sunday

Sunday punch

1. slang A particularly heavy blow; a powerful punch able or intended to knock someone out. Creed connected a Sunday punch to Tyson's head early in the third round, sending him sprawling to the mat. She may look scrawny, but you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of her Sunday punches.2. slang By extension, any maneuver, action, or remark that causes devastating harm to one's opponent. She dredged up her opponent's tax records during the debate, apparently convinced it was a Sunday punch that would bury him. The rebel forces were preparing to throw a Sunday punch at the fascists in command of the country.See also: punch, Sunday

in (one's) Sunday best

Wearing one's very best clothes, as one would wear to a Sunday church service. Instead of some big party, let's all get dressed up in our Sunday best and go for lunch at a fancy restaurant for my birthday! This is going to be a formal event, so please come dressed in your Sunday best.See also: Sunday

be in (one's) Sunday best

To be wearing one's very best clothes, as one would wear to a Sunday church service. We're all in our Sunday best already, so why don't we go for lunch at a fancy restaurant? This is going to be a formal event, so we all need to be in our Sunday best.See also: Sunday

get into (one's) Sunday best

To get dressed in one's very best clothes, as one would wear to a Sunday church service. Instead of some big party, let's all get into our Sunday best and go for lunch at a fancy restaurant for my birthday! This is going to be a formal event, so we all need to get into our Sunday best.See also: get, Sunday

*in one's Sunday best

Rur. in one's best clothes; in the clothes one wears to church. (*Typically: be ~; get [into] ~.) All the children were dressed up in their Sunday best. I like to be in my Sunday best whenever I go out. Let's get into our Sunday best and go out for dinner.See also: Sunday

know as much about something as a hog knows about Sunday

Rur. to have no knowledge of something. Don't let Jim make dessert for the picnic. He knows as much about pies as a hog knows about Sunday. I had quite a time changing the tire, since I know as much about cars as a hog knows about Sunday.See also: hog, know, much, Sunday

Sunday best

one's best clothing, which one would wear to church. (See also Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.) We are in our Sunday best, ready to go. I got mud on my Sunday best.See also: Sunday

Sunday driver

a slow and leisurely driver who appears to be sightseeing and enjoying the view, holding up traffic in the process. (Also a term of address.) I'm a Sunday driver, and I'm sorry. I just can't bear to go faster. Move over, you Sunday driver!See also: driver, Sunday

Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes

Rur. one's best clothes. (See also Sunday best.) John was all dressed up in his Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. I hate to be wearing my Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes when everyone else is casually dressed.See also: clothes

Sunday best

One's finest clothes, as in They were all in their Sunday best for the photographer. This expression alludes to reserving one's best clothes for going to church; indeed, an older idiom is Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes ( meeting here meaning "prayer meeting"). [Mid-1800s] See also: Sunday

your Sunday ˈbest

(informal, humorous) your best clothes: She got all dressed up in her Sunday best to meet her boyfriend’s parents.See also: Sunday

Sunday best

n. one’s best clothing, which one would wear to church. We are in our Sunday best, ready to go. See also: Sunday

Sunday driver

n. a slow and leisurely driver who appears to be sightseeing and enjoying the view, holding up traffic in the process. (Also a term of address.) Move over, you Sunday driver! See also: driver, Sunday

Sunday punch

n. a very solid and destructive blow; one’s best blow. Ralph aimed a Sunday punch at Frederick’s nose, but he missed and spun about, striking his elbow on the banister. See also: punch, Sunday

best bib and tucker, one's

Dressed in one’s finest clothes. A tucker was an ornamental piece of lace worn by women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to cover the neck and shoulders. A bib was either a fancy frill worn at the front of a man’s shirt or an actual formal shirt front. Their pairing with best dates from the mid-eighteenth century. The word bib appeared in print in America in 1795: “The old gentleman put on his best bib and band [i.e., collar]” (The Art of Courting, Newburyport, Massachusetts). A later locution, dating from the mid-nineteenth century, is one’s Sunday best, also known as Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. It refers to an era when one’s finery was reserved for church (or “prayer meeting”). These Americanisms sound archaic today. See also gussied up.See also: and, bib

Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes

Best finery. Churchgoers never wore their everyday clothing to worship service. Instead, they wore their Sunday best, their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.See also: clothes

Sunday

Sunday:

see SabbathSabbath
[Heb.,=repose], in Judaism, last day of the week (Saturday), observed as a rest day for the twenty-five hours commencing with sundown on Friday. In the biblical account of creation (Gen. 1) the seventh day is set as a Sabbath to mark God's rest after his work.
..... Click the link for more information. ; weekweek,
period of time shorter than the month, commonly seven days. The ancient Egyptians used a 10-day period, as did the French under the short-lived French Revolutionary calendar.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Sunday

The Lord's Day

Christians gather for communal worship on Sunday. The first Christians adopted this practice as a means of commemorating the Resurrection, which took place on a Sunday. Early Christian worship services centered around a communal meal. This communal meal eventually evolved into a ritual known as the Eucharist, a ritual still at the heart of the Sunday worship service in a number of Christian denominations. The Eucharist reminds Christians both of Jesus' sacrificial death on Good Friday and of his resurrection on Easter Sunday. Thus, for many Christians, Sunday services throughout the year echo the themes celebrated during the yearly Easter festival.

History

The first Christians, most of whom were Jewish by birth, observed the Jewish Sabbath on Saturdays and met for communal Christian worship on Sunday. The Sabbath is an ancient institution dating back to the foundations of Judaism. The word Sabbath means "to stop" or "that which stops." Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells how God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The Jews patterned their calendar around this story, inventing the seven-day week, which eventually became an important unit of time throughout the Western world. Just as God rested on the seventh day, so did the ancient Jews. This day of rest also reminded the Hebrews that God rescued them from a life of hard labor as slaves in Egypt (see also Passover). Jewish laws forbade all kinds of work and travel on Saturday, the Sabbath day. Breaking these laws was a serious offense against God. The earliest known Sabbath observances consisted mainly of refraining from anything that might be considered work. This break in normal work routines created a good opportunity for prayer and worship, obligations that were later added to the Sabbath. All four biblical accounts of Jesus' resurrection agree that it occurred on the day after the Jewish Sabbath, that is, on the first day of the Jewish week. This remarkable event so astounded the first Christians, however, that it shattered their view of the endlessly repeating cycle of the seven-day week. They began to view the day of the Resurrection as the eighth day of the week, because on that day God had added something utterly new to his Creation by raising Jesus from the dead. This symbolic eighth day of the week, in fact, coincided with the first day of the Jewish week. The early Christians found this overlap between the Jewish first day and the Christian eighth day extremely meaningful. In their eyes the first day of the Jewish week represented the beginning of the world and the creation of light, as told in the first chapter of the book of Genesis. The eighth day of the Christian week represented the beginning of a new kind of light and a new kind of creation, namely, the new relationship between God and humanity made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The association between the Resurrection and the eighth day convinced the early Christians to schedule their weekly worship services on Sunday rather than Saturday. They referred to their day of worship as the Lord's Day.

Scholars of Christianity trace the custom of Sunday worship back to the first century. They find hints of the practice in Christian scripture dating to that era (John 20:19, Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2). At that time Christians from Jewish backgrounds continued to observe the Sabbath every Saturday. They also met for communal worship on Sundays. Justin Martyr penned the following description of these early Sunday worship services around the year 150:

And on the day called Sunday there is an assembly in one place of all who live in cities or in the country, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits: then, when the reader has ceased, the president gives his exhortation to the imitation of these good things. Then we all stand up together and offer prayers and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread is brought and wine and water, and the president in like manner sends up prayers, and thanksgivings according to his ability and the congregation assents saying the Amen. And the participation of the things over which thanks have been given is to each one, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the hands of the deacons. And they who are well-to-do, and willing, give each one as he wills, according to his discretion, and what is collected is deposited with the president, and he himself succours the orphans and widows and those who are in want through sickness or other cause, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers who are sojourning: and in a word he takes care of all who are in need. And we all have our common meeting on Sunday because it is the First Day, on which God, having changed darkness and matter made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. (Hodgkins, 18-19)

As more non-Jews joined the Christian movement debate arose over whether or not they should practice Jewish religious customs, like observing the Sabbath. Most Christian authorities believed that they were not required to do so. These authorities reasoned that Jesus'life, sacrificial death, and resurrection had given Christians a new way of relating to God, one that dissolved many of the old obligations of the Jewish religion. Eventually, non-Jewish Christians outnumbered Jewish Christians and the Christian observance of the Saturday Sabbath faded, replaced by Sunday worship services.

During the fourth and fifth centuries Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. This newfound political power inspired new legislation. From the fourth century onwards, both religious and political authorities began to restrict people from working on Sunday. Yet apart from this restriction, the old, Jewish Sabbath customs were not revived, nor did Christians come to view Sunday as the Sabbath.

During the sixteenth century a western European religious reform movement called the Reformation gave birth to Protestant Christianity. In England and Scotland Protestants veered away from the Christian consensus concerning the old Sabbath customs. They began to insist that Christians not only refrain from all ordinary chores and activities, but also behave piously on Sunday, which they began to call the Sabbath. The Puritans brought these beliefs to colonial America, where they gave rise to the so-called "blue laws." The blue laws forbade people to work on Sundays, as well as restricting a host of activities deemed unsuitable for the Sabbath by these conservative Protestant Christians. In mid-nineteenth century America another Protestant group, the recently formed Seventh-day Adventists, began to observe the Saturday Sabbath, a practice which they believe to be more in keeping with biblical teachings.

Further Reading

Blackburn, Bonnie, and Leofranc Holford-Strevens. The Oxford Companion to the Year. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1999. Bradshaw, Paul F. The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Coble, Ann. "Lord's Day" and "Sabbath." In David Noel Freedman, ed. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000. Collins, Adela Yabro. "Lord's Day." In Paul J. Achtemeier, ed. The Harper- Collins Bible Dictionary. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Hodgkins, William. Sunday - Christian and Social Significance. London, England: Independent Press, 1960. North, R. "Sabbath." In New Catholic Encyclopedia. Volume 12. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967. "Sabbatarianism." In E. A. Livingstone, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Chris- tian Church. Third edition. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1997. "Sabbath." In E. A. Livingstone, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Third edition. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1997. Swartly, Willard M. "Sabbath." In Everett Ferguson, ed. Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. Volume 2. New York: Garland, 1997. Talley, Thomas J. "Christian Worship." In Mircea Eliade, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. Volume 15. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

Sunday

the first day of the week and the Christian day of worship

Sunday

Sun·day

Sunday

Sun•day

Sun•day

Sunday

Sunday

sunday

Sunday

after Saturday comes Sunday

from here to Sunday

eight ways from Sunday

eight ways to Sunday

forty ways from Sunday

forty ways to Sunday

six ways from Sunday

six ways to Sunday

(one's) Sunday finest

(one's) Sunday best

a week tomorrow/on (some day)/etc.

a week yesterday/last (some day)/etc.

(one's) Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes

Sunday driver

Sunday punch

in (one's) Sunday best

be in (one's) Sunday best

get into (one's) Sunday best

*in one's Sunday best

know as much about something as a hog knows about Sunday

Sunday best

Sunday driver

Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes

Sunday best

your Sunday ˈbest

Sunday best

Sunday driver

Sunday punch

best bib and tucker, one's

Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes

Sunday

Sunday:

Sunday

Sunday

Sunday

Sunday

Synonyms for Sunday

noun the Sabbath

Synonyms

Synonyms for Sunday

noun first day of the week

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Related Words

noun United States evangelist (1862-1935)

Synonyms