dawn

n 1: the first light of day; "we got up before dawn"; "they

talked until morning" [syn: {dawning}, {morning}, {aurora},

{first light}, {daybreak}, {break of day}, {break of

the day}, {dayspring}, {sunrise}, {sunup}, {cockcrow}]

[ant: {sunset}]

2: the earliest period: "the dawn of civilization"; "the

morning of the world" [syn: {morning}]

3: an opening time period; "it was the dawn of the Roman

Empire"

v 1: become clear suddenly; "It dawned on him that she had

betrayed him" [syn: {click}, {get through}, {come home},

{get across}, {sink in}, {penetrate}, {fall into place}]

2: appear or develop; "The age of computers had dawned"

3: become light; "It started to dawn, and we had to get up"

down

1. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is considered a

humorous thing to say, and "The elevator is down" always

means "The elevator isn't working" and never refers to what

floor the elevator is on. With respect to computers, this

term has passed into the mainstream; the extension to other

kinds of machine is still hackish.

2. "go down" To stop functioning; usually said of the

{system}. The message from the {console} that every hacker

hates to hear from the operator is "System going down in 5

minutes".

3. "take down", "bring down" To deactivate purposely, usually

for repair work or {PM}. "I'm taking the system down to work

on that bug in the tape drive." Occasionally one hears the

word "down" by itself used as a verb in this sense.

See {crash}; opposite: {up}.

[{Jargon File}]

(1994-12-07)