bright and early
- idiom
- Informal
- The next morning, Robin woke up bright and early.
- bright and early tomorrow
- bright and early morning
- get up bright and early
And we will see you guys bright and early in the morning.
- And we will see you guys bright and early in the morning.
- So this morning we are starting it off bright and early and going on a boat.
- See you guys in the morning bright and early.
- I will be at the booth bright and early.
- We had plans to be up bright and early to do run in this morning and that did not happen.
- Kurt and I are waking up bright and early to go to the matinee to see Wild Robot, which I fear might break me.
Examples
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In the morning, bright and early, I heard that voice again.
Fiction book (1999) -
I want to get up bright and early.
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And we will see you guys bright and early in the morning.
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So this morning we are starting it off bright and early and going on a boat.
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We will see you bright and early in the morning.
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Be sure to watch us bright and early tomorrow morning.
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I will see you bright and early in the morning.
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See you, uh, bright and early Monday a.m.
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Goodnight, love you guys, see you bright and early in the morning.
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I plan to wake up bright and early to enjoy a peaceful breakfast before the day starts.
Synonyms
Before the usual or expected time
Antonyms
How Early
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'very early in the morning' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'early' denotes an earlier-than-usual time and 'bright' evokes daylight or a fresh morning, functioning as an intensifier. This compositional logic is straightforward and mirrors common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Bright and early may come from the simple picture of a fresh, sunny morning where the day is bright and it is still early; people would wake up at that clear time. That's why the phrase now means 'very early in the morning'.