holiday

noun

1. A day on which a religious event or secular celebration is traditionally observed.

   “Near-synonyms: holy day, feast day, festival (feast day sense)”

   “Today is a Wiccan holiday!”

   “Monday, January 18, was the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. In the morning I held a reception for the diplomatic representatives of other nations in the inner quadrangle at Georgetown, addressing them from the steps of Old North Building.”

2. A day declared free from work by the state or government.
3. (Australia, UK)A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural.

   “How much holiday are you allowed?”

   “No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.”

   “Climb aboard a butterfly and take off in the breeze. Let your worries flutter by and do the things you please. In the land where dollar bills are falling off the trees. On a dreamer’s holiday.[…]Make it a long vacation. Time, there is plenty of. You need no reservation. Just bring along the one you love.”

4. (Australia, UK)A period during which pupils do not attend their school; often plural; rarely used for students at university (usually: vacation).

   “I want to take a French course this summer holiday.”

5. A period during which, by agreement, the usual payments are not made.

   “a mortgage payment holiday”

6. A gap in coverage, e.g. of paint on a surface, or sonar imagery.

verb

1. (British, intransitive)To take a period of time away from work or study.
2. (British, intransitive)To spend a period of time in recreational travel.

name

1. A surname.
2. (US)The holiday season or Christmas season, especially when paired with a year.

   “Holiday 2014”