yesterday

noun

1. The day immediately before today; one day ago.

   “Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow.”

   “Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow.”

   “Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …”

   “Yesterday / All my troubles seemed so far away / Now it looks as though they're here to stay / Oh, I believe in yesterday”

2. (figuratively)The past, often in terms of being outdated.

   “yesterday's technology”

   “The worker of today is different from that of yesterday.”

   “All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.”

   “Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.”

adv

1. (not-comparable)On the day before today.

   “I started to watch the video yesterday, but could only finish it this evening.”

2. (informal, not-comparable)As soon as possible.

   “I want this done yesterday!”

   “I need it yesterday!”

   “"Europeans need to get to work yesterday and to focus," she says. "They have 5-10 years to stand on their own two feet in terms of conventional defence capabilities."”