# morning star

Pronunciation: US say "mor-ning STAR" /ˌmɔɹnɪŋ ˈstɑɹ/; UK say "maw-ning STAH" /ˌmɔːnɪŋ ˈstɑː/

## Proper noun

1. The planet Venus as it appears in the eastern sky around dawn.
   - Simple: The planet Venus when it shines in the eastern sky early in the morning.
   - _Fishermen heading out before sunrise could steer by the morning star hanging low in the east._
   - _For weeks the morning star outshone everything else in the dawn sky except the moon._

## Noun

2. A weapon made of a heavy spiked ball fixed rigidly to a staff, as opposed to a flail.
   - Simple: A weapon with a heavy, spiky ball fixed firmly on the end of a pole.
   - _Townsmen in the militia carried morning stars, which were cheap to make and brutal in a crowd._
   - _The knight's morning star had a shaft of oak and a head studded with iron spikes._

## Proper noun

3. The planet Mercury as it appears in the eastern sky around dawn. *(rare)*
   - Simple: The planet Mercury when it can be seen in the eastern sky early in the morning.
   - _Some weeks Mercury rises just ahead of the sun, a faint morning star easy to lose in the glow._
   - _The almanac lists Mercury as the morning star for the first half of the month._

## Noun

4. Matter discharged by the eyes, especially the crust that gathers at their corners during sleep. *(rare, Hong Kong, Philippines)*
   - Simple: The dry, crusty stuff that forms in the corners of your eyes while you sleep.
   - _My lola always reminded us to wipe off the morning star before we left the house._
   - _He overslept and rushed to the office with morning star still in the corner of one eye._

## Origin

From morning + star; compare Dutch morgenster, German Morgenstern, Swedish morgonstjärna and Icelandic morgunstjarna. Its use for Satan comes, like the matching sense of Lucifer, from what is probably a misinterpretation of Isaiah 14:12 ("How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/morning-star (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).