Yesterday, n. [OE. \'f4isterdai, AS. geostran dæg, from geostran, geostra, giestran, gistran, gystran, yesterday (akin to D. gisteren, G. gestern, OHG. gestaron, Icel. gær yesterday, to-morrow, Goth. gistradagis to-morrow, L. heri yesterday, Gr. , Skr. hyas) + dæg day. Cf. Hestern. .].

The day last past; the day next before the present. [1913 Webster]
"All our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death." [1913 Webster]

"We are but of yesterday, and know nothing." [1913 Webster]
Fig.: A recent time; time not long past. [1913 Webster]
"The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of supreme pontiffs." [1913 Webster]

Yesterday, adv.

On the day last past; on the day preceding to-day; as, the affair took place yesterday. [1913 Webster]

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

Yesterday, adv. & n.
--adv.
1 on the day before today.
2 in the recent past.
--n.
1 the day before today.
2 the recent past.

Idiom

yesterday morning (or afternoon etc.) in the morning (or afternoon etc.) of yesterday.

Etymology

OE giestran d{aelig}g (as YESTER-, DAY)

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DEVIL DICTIONARY

Yesterday

n. The infancy of youth, the youth of manhood, the entire past of age.

But yesterday I should have thought me blest
To stand high-pinnacled upon the peak
Of middle life and look adown the bleak
And unfamiliar foreslope to the West,
Where solemn shadows all the land invest
And stilly voices, half-remembered, speak
Unfinished prophecy, and witch-fires freak
The haunted twilight of the Dark of Rest.
Yea, yesterday my soul was all aflame
To stay the shadow on the dial's face
At manhood's noonmark! Now, in God His name
I chide aloud the little interspace
Disparting me from Certitude, and fain
Would know the dream and vision ne'er again.
Baruch Arnegriff

It is said that in his last illness the poet Arnegriff was attended at different times by seven doctors.

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THESAURUS

Yesterday

aforetime, before, before now, beforetime, bygone days, bygone times, days gone by, dead past, earlier, erenow, erewhile, erst, foretime, former times, formerly, heretofore, historically, history, hitherto, in the past, in times past, lang syne, only yesterday, past, past history, past times, prehistorically, previously, priorly, recent past, recently, the irrevocable Past, the past, then, thou unrelenting past, times past, whilom, yesteryear, yore

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ROGET THESAURUS

Yesterday

The Past

N the past, past time, days of yore, times of yore, days of old, times of old, days past, times past, days gone by, times gone by, bygone days, old times, ancient times, former times, fore time, the good old days, the olden time, good old time, auld lang syne, eld, antiquity, antiqueness, status quo, time immemorial, distance of time, remote age, remote time, remote past, rust of antiquity, paleontology, paleography, paleology, paleozoology, palaetiology, archaeology, paleogeography, paleoecology, paleobotany, paleoclimatoogy, archaism, antiquarianism, medievalism, Pre-Raphaelitism, paleography, retrospect, retrospection, looking back, memory, laudator temporis acti, medievalist, Pre-Raphaelite, antiquary, antiquarian, archmologist, Oldbuck, Dryasdust, ancestry, past, gone, gone by, over, passed away, bygone, foregone, elapsed, lapsed, preterlapsed, expired, no more, run out, blown over, has-been, that has been, extinct, antediluvian, antebellum, never to return, gone with the wind, exploded, forgotten, irrecoverable, obsolete, former, pristine, quondam, ci-devant, late, ancestral, foregoing, last, latter, recent, over night, preterperfect, preterpluperfect, looking back, retrospective, retroactive, archaeological, paleo-, archaeo-, formerly, of old, of yore, erst, whilom, erewhile, time was, ago, over, in the olden time, anciently, long ago, long since, a long while, a long time ago, years ago, yesteryear, ages ago, some time ago, some time since, some time back, yesterday, the day before yesterday, last year, ultimo, lately, retrospectively, ere now, before now, till now, hitherto, heretofore, no longer, once, once upon a time, from time immemorial, from prehistoric times, in the memory of man, time out of mind, already, yet, up to this time, ex post facto, time was, the time has been, the time hath been, you can't go home again, fuimus Troes, fruit Ilium, hoc erat in more majorum, O call back yesterday, bid time return, tempi passati, the eternal landscape of the past, ultimus Romanorum, what's past is prologue, whose yesterdays look backward with a smile, Time with reference to a particular period.

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