birthdays

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of birthday.

   The office marks all the staff birthdays with a single party each month.

   As he got older, his birthdays became quieter affairs with close family.

   Note

   The everyday plural keeps the y and adds a plain -s, because the y follows a vowel, as in days. It covers every noun meaning of birthday: people's anniversaries, those of anything created, and birthday parties themselves. The same spelling also serves the informal verb form, so "their birthdays fall in June" and "she birthdays in June" look alike but work differently in the sentence.

2. 2
   verbcolloquial

   Third-person singular simple present of birthday.

   My grandmother birthdays in grand style, renting a hall for the whole neighborhood.

   Each June he birthdays on a camping trip rather than at any party.

   Note

   A casual verb that takes no object: one birthdays somewhere or in some style, but never birthdays something. It belongs to relaxed speech and writing. In formal prose, "celebrates her birthday" says the same thing more safely, and it avoids a reader briefly mistaking the verb for the plural noun.

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