Saint Monday

English

Alternative forms
  • St. Monday

Proper noun

Saint Monday

  1. (informal, historical, Victorian England) The supposed holiday observed on a Monday morning by well-paid artisans who had been drinking etc the previous day.
    • 1771–1790, Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography [Part 1]”, in John Bigelow, editor, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., published 1868, →OCLC, page 149:
      My constant attendance (I never making a St. Monday) recommended me to the master; and my uncommon quickness at composing occasioned my being put upon all work of dispatch, which was generally better paid.
    • 1988, Shoshana Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine, New York: Basic Books, page 32:
      One study of Birmingham, England, from 1766 to 1876, found that well into the nineteenth century, workers continued to celebrate Saint Monday—a weekly day of leisure spent in the alehouse enjoying drink, bar games, entertainments, “pugilism,” and animal fights.

Derived terms
  • keep Saint Monday

References
  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Further reading
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