days

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of day.

   The conference lasted four days and drew thousands of visitors.

   Only a few days remain before the application deadline.

   Note

   A regular -s plural with a long history: Old English dagas, plural of the Germanic word for day. It counts whatever a day measures, whether daylight hours, a solar or sidereal day, or a calendar day running midnight to midnight. In 'three days' the context decides which is meant. The same spelling hides a different ending in the adverb meaning 'by day', which comes from a genitive rather than a plural.

2. 2
   nouncountableplural

   A particular time or period whose limits are loosely defined.

   In the days of sailing ships, a voyage might take many months.

   Her student days shaped the direction of her whole career.

   Similartimes, years, era, age

   Note

   Time remembered as an era rather than counted: in Grandpa's days, in the old days, his days of being king. It almost always takes a possessive, a demonstrative or the, often with of plus a noun or -ing form (the days of sailing ships). The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) opens a reminiscence with in the old days. Ben Travers's A Cuckoo in the Nest (1922) uses even in these days to point at the present.

3. 3
   nouncountableplural

   The course or span of a person's life.

   The exiled king lived out his days far from the throne he had lost.

   A long illness gradually shortened his days.

   Similarlife, years, lifetime

   Note

   Here the days run out rather than pass: the sense lives in phrases about how a life finishes or is spent, such as end one's days and live out one's days. It is plural-only, so a single day never stands for a life. Compare it with the 'era' meaning. His days are over ends a period of his life, while he ended his days ends the life itself.

4. 4
   adverb

   During the daytime rather than at night.

   The clinic operates days and sends emergencies elsewhere once it closes.

   He studies nights and waits tables days to pay for school.

   Oppositenights

   Note

   An adverb in disguise. Its -s is an old adverbial ending, not a plural, and comes from the Old English genitive dæġes, 'by day'. It answers the question 'when?' without a preposition or article, as in she works days. Its natural partner is nights, used in exactly the same way (studies nights, waits tables days). By day says the same thing with an explicit preposition.

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