the.com/break of dawn
The one deadline the sun has never missed.
means The first light of morning, the exact moment night gives way to day.
from 'Break' here carries its old sense of a sudden bursting-forth, light 'breaking' through darkness the way a wave breaks or a storm breaks — a burst into being. The phrase joins that image to 'dawn,' itself from an ancient root tied to shining and glowing. Together they describe the sky cracking open to let the light out.
- the break
- darkness literally cracking open into light
- not sunrise
- happens before the sun actually appears
- synonym
- same moment as first light, daybreak
- myth
- used as alibi far more than actually witnessed