christmas

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: Christ=mas

CIDE DICTIONARY

christmas, n. [Christ + mass.].

 An annual church festival (December 25) and in some States a legal holiday, in memory of the birth of Christ, often celebrated by a particular church service, and also by special gifts, greetings, and hospitality.  [1913 Webster]

Christmas box. (a) A box in which presents are deposited at Christmas. (b) A present or small gratuity given to young people and servants at Christmas; a Christmas gift. -- Christmas carol, a carol sung at, or suitable for, Christmas. -- Christmas day. Same as Christmas. -- Christmas eve, the evening before Christmas. -- Christmas fern (Bot.), an evergreen North American fern (Aspidium acrostichoides), which is much used for decoration in winter. -- Christmas flower, Christmas rose, the black hellebore, a poisonous plant of the buttercup family, which in Southern Europe often produces beautiful roselike flowers midwinter. -- Christmas tree, a small evergreen tree, set up indoors, to be decorated with bonbons, presents, etc., and illuminated on Christmas eve.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

christmas, n. & int.
--n. (pl. Christmases)
1 (also Christmas Day) the annual festival of Christ's birth, celebrated on 25 Dec.
2 the season in which this occurs; the time immediately before and after 25 Dec.
--int. sl. expressing surprise, dismay, etc.

Idiom

Christmas-box a present or gratuity given at Christmas esp. to tradesmen and employees. Christmas cake Brit. a rich fruit cake usu. covered with marzipan and icing and eaten at Christmas. Christmas card a card sent with greetings at Christmas. Christmas Eve the day or the evening before Christmas Day. Christmas pudding Brit. a rich boiled pudding eaten at Christmas, made with flour, suet, dried fruit, etc. Christmas rose a white-flowered winter-blooming evergreen, Helleborus niger. Christmas tree an evergreen (usu. spruce) or artificial tree set up with decorations at Christmas.

Derivative

Christmassy adj.

Etymology

OE Cristes m{aelig}sse (MASS(2))

THESAURUS

christmas

Advent, Allhallowmas, Allhallows, Allhallowtide, Annunciation, Annunciation Day, Ascension Day, Ash Wednesday, Candlemas, Candlemas Day, Carnival, Corpus Christi, Easter, Easter Monday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, Eastertide, Ember days, Epiphany, Good Friday, Halloween, Hallowmas, Holy Thursday, Holy Week, Lady Day, Lammas, Lammas Day, Lammastide, Lent, Lententide, Mardi Gras, Martinmas, Maundy Thursday, Michaelmas, Michaelmas Day, Michaelmastide, Nativity, Palm Sunday, Pancake Day, Passion Week, Pentecost, Quadragesima, Quadragesima Sunday, Septuagesima, Shrove Tuesday, Trinity Sunday, Twelfth-day, Twelfth-tide, Whit-Tuesday, White Sunday, Whitmonday, Whitsun, Whitsunday, Whitsuntide, Whitweek, noel, yule, yuletide

ROGET THESAURUS

christmas

Periodicity

N regularity of recurrence, periodicity, intermittence, beat, oscillation, pulse, pulsation, rhythm, alternation, alternateness, alternativeness, alternity, bout, round, revolution, rotation, turn, say, anniversary, jubilee, centenary, catamenia, courses, menses, menstrual flux, rota, cycle, period, stated time, routine, days of the week, Sunday, Monday, months of the year, January, feast, fast, Christmas, Easter, New Year's day, Allhallows, Allhallowmas, All Saints' Day, All Souls', All Souls' Day, Ash Wednesday, bicentennial, birthday, bissextile, Candlemas, Dewali, groundhog day, Halloween, Hallowmas, Lady day, leap year, Midsummer day, Muharram, woodchuck day, St. Swithin's day, natal day, yearbook, yuletide, punctuality, regularity, steadiness, periodic, periodical, serial, recurrent, cyclical, rhythmical, recurring, intermittent, remittent, alternate, every other, hourly, diurnal, daily, quotidian, tertian, weekly, hebdomadal, hebdomadary, biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, catamenial, monthly, menstrual, yearly, annual, biennial, triennial, centennial, secular, paschal, lenten, regular, steady, punctual, regular as clockwork, periodically, at regular intervals, at stated times, at fixed established, at established periods, punctually, de die in diem, from day to day, day by day, by turns, in turn, in rotation, alternately, every other day, off and on, ride and tie, round and round.

Rite

N rite, ceremony, ritual, liturgy, ceremonial, ordinance, observance, function, duty, form, formulary, solemnity, sacrament, incantation, service, psalmody, ministration, preaching, preachment, predication, sermon, homily, lecture, discourse, pastoral, baptism, christening, chrism, circumcision, baptismal regeneration, font, confirmation, imposition of hands, laying on of hands, ordination, excommunication, Bar Mitzvah, Bas Mitzvah, Bris, Eucharist, Lord's supper, communion, the sacrament, the holy sacrament, celebration, high celebration, missa cantata, asperges, offertory, introit, consecration, consubstantiation, transubstantiation, real presence, elements, mass, high mass, low mass, dry mass, matrimony, burial, visitation of the sick, seven sacraments, impanation, subpanation, extreme unction, viaticum, invocation of saints, canonization, transfiguration, auricular confession, maceration, flagellation, sackcloth and ashes, penance, telling of beads, processional, thurification, incense, holy water, aspersion, relics, rosary, beads, reliquary, host, cross, rood, crucifix, pax, pyx, agnus Dei, censer, thurible, patera, eileton, Holy Grail, prayer machine, prayer wheel, Sangraal, urceus, ritualism, ceremonialism, sabbatism, sabbatarianism, ritualist, sabbatarian, holyday, feast, fast, Sabbath, Pentecost, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Passion week, Holy week, Easter, Easter Sunday, Whitsuntide, agape, Ascension Day, Candlemas, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Holy Thursday, Lammas, Martinmas, Michaelmas, All SAint's DAy, All Souls' Day, Ramadan, Ramazan, Bairam Passover, Shabuoth, Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, Rosh Hashana, New Year, Hanukkah, Chanukkah, Feast of Lights, Purim, Feast of lots, ritual, ritualistic, ceremonial, baptismal, eucharistical, paschal, what art thou, thou idol ceremony?.