Sab"bath (?), n. [OE.
sabat, sabbat, F.
sabbat, L.
sabbatum, Gr. sa`bbaton, fr. Heb. shabbāth, fr. shābath to rest from
labor. Cf. Sabbat.]
1. A season or day of rest; one day in seven appointed for rest or worship, the observance of which was enjoined upon the Jews in the Decalogue, and has been continued by the Christian church with a
transference of the day observed from the last
to the first day of
the week, which is called also Lord's
Day.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Ex. xx.
8. 2. The seventh year, observed among the Israelites as one of rest and festival. Lev. xxv. 4.
3. Fig.: A
time of rest or repose; intermission of pain, effort, sorrow, or the like.
Peaceful sleep out the sabbath of the tomb.
Pope. Sabbath breaker, one who violates the law of the Sabbath. -- Sabbath
breaking, the violation of the law of the Sabbath. -- Sabbath-day's
journey, a distance of about a mile,
which, under Rabbinical law, the Jews were allowed to travel on
the Sabbath.
Syn. -- Sabbath, Sunday.
Sabbath is not strictly synonymous with Sunday. Sabbath
denotes the institution;
Sunday is the name of the first day
of the week.
The Sabbath of the Jews is on Saturday, and the Sabbath of most Christians on Sunday. In New England, the first day of
the week has been called "the Sabbath," to mark it as holy time;
Sunday is the word more
commonly used, at present, in all parts of the
United States, as it is in England.
"So if we will be the children of our heavenly Father, we must be careful to keep the Christian Sabbath
day, which is the Sunday." Homilies.
Hear it pronounced