dawn on

Idioms and Phrases

Also, dawn upon . Become evident or understood, as in It finally dawned on him that he was expected to call them , or Around noon it dawned upon me that I had never eaten breakfast . This expression transfers the beginning of daylight to the beginning of a thought process. Harriet Beecher Stowe had it in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852): “The idea that they had either feelings or rights had never dawned upon her.” [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Russia's invasion began with dozens of missile strikes on cities all over Ukraine before dawn on 24 February 2022.

From BBC

Or, they didn't mind until it started to dawn on them that Trump's hate rally in New York City may have backfired, at which point Musk quietly removed the ad.

From Salon

In the Los Angeles area, weekend caravans typically meet at dawn on a Saturday for a drive that takes hours and return late the following night.

From Los Angeles Times

At least two residential buildings in the south-eastern al-Manara neighbourhood of Khan Younis were hit by Israeli strikes around dawn on Friday, according to a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.

From BBC

Just after dawn on Thursday, I pointed my car up a long, steep hill outside Bishop and climbed through the high desert scrub toward the towering peaks of the Eastern Sierra.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• affect
• carry
• get
• hit
• move
• reach
• touch