[f. BIRTH1 + DAY.]
1. The day on which any one is born; also fig. that of regeneration; transf. (of things), the day or date of origin or beginning.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 711. The daye that the citie was first founded on, the birth day.
1599. Davies, in Farr’s S. P. (1845), I. 102. We … That haue bene euer from our birth-day blind.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 130, ¶ 10. The Anniversary of the Birth-day of this Glorious Queen.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 18. The birthday of Invention.
1858. Sears, Athan., viii. 68. Now therefore comes the second birthday of man.
2. The anniversary or annual observance of the day of birth of any one; sometimes spec. that of the sovereign.
[c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xiv. 6. On Herodes gebyrd-dæʓe].
1382. Wyclif, Mark vi. 21. Eroude in his birthe day [1388 birthdai] made a soper to the princes.
1579. Fulke, Refut. Rastel, 796. To celebrate his Martyrs byrth day.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., V. i. 71. This is my Birth-day, as this very day Was Cassius borne.
1755. Connoisseur, No. 117. This suit … was made up for a noble lord on the last birthday.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 633. A costly gift … given her on the night Before her birthday.
3. attrib. and comb., as birthday card, gift, present, wish, etc.; birthday-book, a book in diary form with spaces for recording birthdays; † birthday(’s mind, the commemoration of a birthday; birthday suit, a dress worn on the King’s birthday.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 265. Because he had celebrated the Birth-dayes-minde, of Otho the Emperour. Ibid., 101. His birth-day-mind [natalem suum] falling out in the time of the Plebeian games.
1727. Swift, What Pass. Lond., Wks. 1755, III. I. 184. So many birth-day suits were countermanded the next day.
1830. Gen. P. Thomson, Exerc. (1842), I. 314. The time that a birthday ox takes in roasting.
1868. W. Collins, Moonst. (1871), 61. Your uncle’s birthday gift.
