daily

Less common meanings

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A thing produced, consumed, used, or done every day.

   At the end of each shift, the site supervisor files a daily listing the crew's hours, deliveries, and any safety problems.

   Each branch office mailed in its daily, a one-page summary of the policies written that day.

   Note

   In insurance offices the noun named a daily report, the copy of each newly written policy that an agent sent to the company. James Newton McCord's A Textbook of Filing (1920) files an agency's dailies by number and territory, and The American Archivist (1946) has them checked in an Impaired Record department. Later it names classroom activities, as in Carole Marsh's Tennessee Dailies (2011), and even a personal routine: "my daily." It is most often heard in the plural, dailies.

6. 6
   raw footagenounUScountable

   In filmmaking, raw, unedited footage, traditionally processed overnight so the cast and crew could watch it the following day.

   The director studied the dailies each evening to track continuity.

   When the cast gathered to screen the dailies, the director spotted a boom microphone dipping into several shots.

   UsageAlmost always plural, often with the: watch the dailies. The same footage is also called rushes.

   Similarrushes

   Note

   The name describes the schedule rather than the content. A day's shooting was processed overnight and screened the next day, so problems with performance or technical quality could be caught early.

7. 7
   everyday carnouncolloquialUScountable

   A vehicle driven every day for ordinary travel, as distinct from one reserved for special use.

   She bought a reliable sedan to use as her daily.

   Restoring the classic meant he needed a separate daily for the commute.

   Note

   Car enthusiasts shortened daily driver to daily, and the word's point is contrast. A daily is set against the project car, the weekend car or the show car kept for occasional use. The same shortening pairs with the verb, which turns the noun into an action.

8. 8
   drive oftenverbcolloquialUStransitive

   To drive a particular car every day for routine, everyday tasks rather than saving it for special occasions.

   She dailies a small electric car to save on gas.

   Most collectors would never daily a car that rare, but she drives hers to the office every morning.

   UsageForms: dailies, dailying, dailied, as in she dailies an old pickup.

   Note

   It carries the enthusiast's sense of accepting mileage and wear on a car that might otherwise be saved.

9. 9
   game questnouncountable

   A quest in an online multiplayer game that players can repeat once each day for accumulating rewards.

   Most players knock out their dailies before raiding at night.

   Today's daily only asks you to gather ten herbs, but the reward still counts toward the weekly bonus chest.

   UsageUsually plural: players do, run or knock out their dailies.

   Note

   Gamer jargon for the chore list a game resets every twenty-four hours. Each reward is usually small (currency, reputation, experience), but rewards accumulate, and the point of the design is to bring players back every day. Outside game talk, this sense needs explaining.

10. 10
    house cleanernounUKcountable

    A domestic cleaner who comes to a household every day.

    The family's daily arrived at eight to start on the kitchen.

    After her hip surgery, she relied on a daily for the housework.

    UsageUsually a daily or the family's daily. Outside Britain, say daily cleaner, or readers may think of a newspaper.

    Similarcleaner

11. 11
    contact lensnouninformalcountable

    A contact lens designed to be worn for a single day and then thrown away.

    He switched to dailies after struggling with cleaning solutions.

    A daily is more convenient for someone who only wears lenses occasionally.

    UsageMostly plural: a box of dailies, switch to dailies. In a prescription or product text, say daily disposable lenses.

    Note

    Clipped from the phrase daily disposable, which is why it means a lens rather than anything else used each day. The shorthand is informal and is heard from lens wearers and eye-care writers in both British and American English.

12. 12
    adjectivearchaic

    Occurring or available during daylight; diurnal rather than nocturnal.

    Oppositenightly

    Note

    Here day is set against night, not against the calendar, which is why its opposite is nightly rather than weekly. The meaning is archaic, and a modern reader will almost always hear the everyday meaning instead. To say 'by daylight' today, daytime or diurnal is the safer choice. This use is best kept for deliberately older-sounding prose. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • In the daylight sense, daily contrasts with nightly rather than weekly. en.wiktionary.org
    • The adjective's daylight sense is archaic. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    adverbarchaic

    During the hours of daylight; in the daytime rather than at night.