thanksgiving

From thanks +‎ giving.

• IPA^(key): /ˌθæŋksˈɡɪv.ɪŋ/, /ˈθæŋksˌɡɪv.ɪŋ/

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thanksgiving (countable and uncountable, plural thanksgivings)

1. The expression of gratitude.
   • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 3:

     Now the happy king laid the forehead of thankſgiving upon the duſt of gratitude; he opened the doors of his wealth to the four winds, and enriched the world, at once, with his munificence.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     The waters grew suddenly lighter, and my spirits rose accordingly. I shouted down to those below that I saw daylight ahead, and a great shout of thanksgiving reverberated through the ship. A moment later we emerged into sunlit water, and immediately I raised the periscope and looked about me upon the strangest landscape I had ever seen.

   • 1979 December 8, Dianne Feinstein, quotee, “Services Honor Milk, Moscone”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 1:

     People gathered, she said, "not simply in an attitude of mourning, grievous as those events were, but rather in the spirit of thanksgiving that George and Harvey were among us, that they shared with us their dreams and aspirations for the San Francisco of the 1980s."

2. A short prayer said at meals; grace, a benediction.
3. A public celebration in acknowledgement of divine favour.
   • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

     Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli.