easter

Adjective

easter (comparative more easter, superlative most easter)

1. (dialectal) Eastern.
   • In the mean while, as our apartment was a corner one, and looked both east and north, I ran to the easter casement to look after Drummond.1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford, published 2010, page 57
   • This is properly two, if not three towns — there being an Easter Anstruther and a Wester Anstruther, both burghs, besides a large fishing village […]1828, The Picture of Scotland, page 187

Noun (1)

easter (plural easters)

1. An easterly wind (a wind blowing from the east); especially, a strong one; a storm of such winds.
   • A northeaster in one place may be an easter, a norther, or a souther in some other locality.1902, John Burroughs, Locusts and Wild Honey, page 81

   Synonyms:

   east wind, eastwind, easterly, East

Verb (1)

easter (third-person singular simple present easters, present participle eastering, simple past and past participle eastered)

1. To move toward the east.
   • Off Tilbury the Alcyone's topsail-yard was carried away just forward of the slings; she set a jib-headed one; at Thames Haven the wind eastered ...1871, Hunt's Yachting Magazine, page 265
   • At 5 the wind eastered and came E. by N., that we went 2 knots […] .1940(?), Thomas Allen, The Journals of Sir Thomas Allin, 1660-1678

Noun (2) capitalized: Easter

UK/ˈiːstə/US/ˈistəɹ/

Easter (countable and uncountable, plural Easters)

1. A Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on the first Sunday (and Monday) following the full moon that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox, ranging in most of Western Christianity (such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism) from March 22 to April 25, and in Eastern Christianity (such as the Coptic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church) from April 4 to May 8.
   • We spent each of the past five Easters together as a family.
   • During the Easter season, the Russians are planning “a great battle in Donbas,” the Russian-occupied region in Ukraine’s far east. “This is not Christian behavior at all, as I understand it. On Easter they will kill, and they will be killed.”2022 April 15, Anne Applebaum, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Volodymyr Zelensky, “LIBERATION WITHOUT VICTORY”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 15 Apr 2022

   Synonyms:

   Easter Day, Easter Sunday

2. Eastertide (“the period from Easter to Whitsun”).
   • Meronyms: Easter Day, Easter Sunday
3. (dated, figuratively, specifically) Usually preceded by an inflection of make: the act of receiving the Eucharist during Easter.
4. (Ireland, UK, abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Easter term.
5. A festival held in honour of the goddess Eostre or Ostara, celebrated at the vernal equinox or within the month of April; Eostre, Ostara.
6. (obsolete) The Jewish Passover.
   • After two dayes folowed eſter⸝ and the dayes of ſwete breed. And the hye preſtꝭ [prestis] and ſcrybꝭ [scrybis] ſought meanes⸝ howe they myght take hym [Jesus] by crafte and putt hym to deeth.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Marke xiiij:[1], folio lxv, verso

Proper noun capitalized: Easter

UK/ˈiːstə/US/ˈistəɹ/

Easter

1. A surname.

Verb (2) capitalized: Easter

UK/ˈiːstə/US/ˈistəɹ/

Easter (third-person singular simple present Easters, present participle Eastering, simple past and past participle Eastered)

1. (intransitive) To celebrate Easter.
2. (intransitive) To spend the Easter season in some place.