crack of dawn
Very early morning
The crack of dawn is the very first moment of daylight, when the sun begins to break over the horizon.
It emphasizes earliness more dramatically than simply saying "dawn" or "sunrise." Someone who wakes at the crack of dawn rises extremely early, often before most others are awake.
We left at the crack of dawn to beat the traffic.
The phrase sometimes carries connotations of discipline, ambition, or necessity.
- morningDay's early hours
- first lightEarliest morning brightness
- morning lightIllumination after sunrise
- cockcrowDawn, announced by fowl
- sunriseMorning light's arrival
daybreak · alpenglow · rooster · sunup · dayspring · early · aurora · break of day · mist · dew · birdsong · hush · stillness · quiet · bed · crisp · fresh start · rise and shine
- morningmorning, sunrise, daybreak, mid-morning, early morning
- time wordsminute, hour, day, now, soon
- daypartssunrise, morning, forenoon, midmorning, mid-morning
- Timesmorning, afternoon, evening, night, noon
- dawnsunrise, daybreak, first light, sunup, dayspring
- time expressionsnow, today, soon, tomorrow, later
crack of dawnlast minute
Just before deadline
eleventh hour · end of day · late in the day · end of the day
dawn, crack, cracked, crackers, cracker, cracks, cracking, dawning, dawns