honeymoon

HUN-ee-moon/ˈhʌn.iˌmuːn/

Verbhoneymoons, honeymooning, honeymooned

4 meanings of honeymoon

1
wedding tripnouncountable
A trip or vacation that a newly married couple takes in the period just after their wedding.
The couple spent their honeymoon hiking in the Swiss Alps.
The resort offers honeymoon packages with dinners on the beach.
2
early goodwillnouncountable
A period of goodwill at the start of a new term of office or relationship, such as toward a newly elected politician or a new business arrangement.
New presidents usually get a brief honeymoon with voters and the press.
Once the honeymoon period ended, the two companies began fighting over costs.
Note
Politics and business borrowed the word for the goodwill a newcomer enjoys, and it is usually spoken of as ending: the honeymoon is over, the honeymoon period came to a swift end. In Ten Days That Shook the World, John Reed's revolutionary "honeymoon" was short; Gerald Ford, leaving office in 1977, recalled asking not for a honeymoon but for a good marriage.
3
nouncountable
The period of time immediately after a wedding.
The young pastor and his wife were barely a month into their honeymoon when they arrived in the town.
They spent the honeymoon at home, unpacking boxes and painting the kitchen.
Note
Two plain words make the name, and they began as a slightly sour joke: newlywed affection, sweet as honey, was expected to wane like the moon. Later the moon was read as a month, so the honeymoon became the first month of marriage, thought to be the sweetest. The phrase on their honeymoon still names the time itself, not only a trip.
4
wedding tripverbintransitive
To take a trip as a newly married couple in the period just after the wedding.
Couples who honeymoon abroad should check their passports well before the wedding.
They spent three weeks honeymooning along the coast of Portugal.

Practice

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Origin

From earlier hony moone, equivalent to honey + moon, first naming the period just after a wedding. The original reference was to affection waning like the moon, but the sense later became "the first month, or moon, after marriage", which tends to be the sweetest. Compare Middle Low German suckermânt (literally "sugar-month"); French lune de miel is a calque of the English term, and German Honigmond a calque of the French.