minor fast day
- noun
:
día de ayuno menor
- On a minor fast day, healthy adults abstain from food and drink from dawn until nightfall.
Examples
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During a minor fast day, work is permitted as usual unlike on Yom Kippur.
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The Jewish calendar includes several minor fast days commemorating historical tragedies.
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A minor fast day is important for reflection.
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Is today a minor fast day?
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On a minor fast day, many Jews remember important events in their history with fasting and prayer.
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The Jewish community observes minor fast days with specific customs and prayers that differ from major fasts.
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Every year, the calendar marks several minor fast days that allow individuals to reflect without complete fasting.
Synonyms
3
4.0
A time when a person does not eat or drink
1
5.9
A day when people do not eat for religious or spiritual reasons
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'minor' (lesser), 'fast' (refrain from eating) and 'day' (a calendar observance), so a learner who knows these words can infer it denotes a day of fasting with lesser/partial restrictions. The modifier + event-day pattern is common cross-linguistically, making the meaning readily derivable for B1 learners.
Etymology
Minor fast day comes from Jewish practice: it is a day when people fast (do not eat or drink from morning until night) but the rules are lighter than for a major fast, so it is called minor. That's why the phrase means a day with a limited or partial 'fast' rather than a full, strict one.