Valentine's Day
79
1.0
- noun
- /ˈvælənˌtaɪnz deɪ/
:
Día de San Valentín
- On Valentine's Day, couples exchange gifts and express their love.
- Happy Valentine's Day
- a Valentine's Day card
- a Valentine's Day gift
Examples
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We've got to decide soon, because it has to be out by Valentine's Day.
Fiction book (1994) -
You can use it to make one of those "singing" Valentine's Day cards!
Blog text (5) -
After two very long weeks, it's finally Valentine's Day.
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And you still owe me for Valentine's Day.
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Craig took me shopping on Valentine's Day, saying it was the least he could do.
Fiction book (1991) -
I sent him drawings and made him cards for Valentine's Day and Christmas.
Blog text (17) -
She was born on Valentine's Day.
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Why don't we meet in New York for Valentine's Day weekend?
Fiction book (1993) -
Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching, and it's the biggest day of the year for a chocolatier.
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There's a big Valentine's Day dance with St. Matthew's coming up.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
1
1.4
A holiday on February 14 when people show love and give cards or gifts
1
1.0
A day each year when people celebrate love and give cards or gifts
A day on February 14 when people give cards and flowers to loved ones
Surface Forms
Morphology
Valentine's + day
This is a possessive proper-name construction (Valentine's + day) where the conventional meaning—an occasion for expressing romantic love and exchanging cards/gifts—is cultural and not predictable from knowing the name 'Valentine' and the noun 'day' alone. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words but lacks cultural knowledge would not reliably infer the holiday's specific social meaning, so the expression is opaque.
Etymology
The holiday Valentine's Day may come from a story about a priest named Valentine who secretly married young couples when a ruler would not allow marriage. Because people remembered him on one day, that day became a time for cards and gifts, so today Valentine's Day means 'to show love'.