Link Centre Dictionary

Eve

UK/iːv/ US/ˈiv/ common

noun

1.

(Old Testament) Adam''s wife in Judeo-Christian mythology: the first woman and mother of the human race; God created Eve from Adam''s rib and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

2.

the day before

  • “he always arrives on the eve of her departure”
3.

the period immediately before something

  • “on the eve of the French Revolution”
4.

the latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall)

  • “he enjoyed the evening light across the lake”
Synonyms

Origin

From a variant of the Middle English noun even (itself from Old English ǣfen), with a pre-1200 loss of the terminal '-n', which was mistaken for an inflection. See also the now archaic or poetic even (“evening”), from the same source. In medieval Europe, days were considered to extend from sunset to sunset rather than midnight to midnight, so the night before a holiday was considered part of it, hence its "eve".

Phrases

  • Adam and Eve
  • All Hallows' Eve
  • Eve green
  • good eve
  • know someone from Eve
  • Mitochondrial Eve
  • New Eve
  • sister of Eve

Related words

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.