false dawn

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A thin ambient light which precedes true dawn, typically by around an hour, in certain…

   A thin ambient light which precedes true dawn, typically by around an hour, in certain parts of the world.

   • The moon was low down, and there was just the glimmer of the false dawn that comes about an hour before the real one.
2. 2

   Something engendering premature hope

   Something engendering premature hope; a promising sign which in fact leads to nothing.

   • As Congo nears the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgium on June 30th, Mr Chebeya’s murky death suggests that 2006 was a false dawn.
   • This, it must be stressed, is not to mark Arsenal out as potential Premier League winners or acclaim them as the finished product - there have been false dawns before, under both current manager Mikel Arteta and his predecessor Unai Emery.

The neighborhood