"seize the day" meaning in English

See seize the day in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-seize the day.ogg [Australia] Forms: seizes the day [present, singular, third-person], seizing the day [participle, present], seized the day [participle, past], seized the day [past]
Etymology: Calque of Latin carpe diem, originally meaning "enjoy the day", literally "pluck (or harvest) the day", from a poem by the ancient poet Horace. In Latin, it was common to use carpo (“I pluck something, pick off”) metaphorically to express enjoying a period of time. The use of seize is a traditional mistranslation originating from a confusion with cape, singular imperative of capio (“I seize something, grab”). Etymology templates: {{calque|en|la|carpe diem}} Calque of Latin carpe diem, {{m|la|carpo||I pluck something, pick off}} carpo (“I pluck something, pick off”), {{m|en|seize}} seize, {{m|la|cape}} cape, {{m|la|capio||I seize something, grab}} capio (“I seize something, grab”) Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} seize the day (third-person singular simple present seizes the day, present participle seizing the day, simple past and past participle seized the day)
  1. (idiomatic) To enjoy the present and not worry about the future; to live for the moment. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms (live for the moment): carpe diem, gather rosebuds Translations (enjoy the present): 花開堪折直須折 (Chinese Mandarin), 花开堪折直须折 (huā kāi kān zhé zhí xū zhé) (Chinese Mandarin), pluk de dag (Dutch), tartu hetkeen (Finnish), cueillir le jour (French), carpe diem (French), nutze den Tag (German), élj a mának (Hungarian), gríptu daginn (Icelandic), cogliere l'attimo (Italian), carpe diem (Latin), gripe dagen (Norwegian), chwytaj dzień (Polish), carpe diem (Portuguese), colhe o dia (Portuguese), aproveita o momento (Portuguese), лови́ моме́нт (loví momént) (Russian), aprovecha el día (Spanish), fånga dagen (Swedish), günü yakala (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-seize_the_day-en-verb-el4pgQzN Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English predicates, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 57 21 22 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 60 17 23 Disambiguation of English predicates: 42 31 27 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 58 21 21 Disambiguation of 'live for the moment': 91 5 4 Disambiguation of 'enjoy the present': 95 4 2
  2. (idiomatic) To make the most of today by achieving fulfillment in a philosophical or spiritual sense. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-seize_the_day-en-verb-3h3mUzoG
  3. (idiomatic) To attack the day's efforts with vigor and purpose. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: stop and smell the roses, yesterday is gone
    Sense id: en-seize_the_day-en-verb-Ew7u~ME9

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for seize the day meaning in English (7.2kB)

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        "(idiomatic) To enjoy the present and not worry about the future; to live for the moment."
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          "_dis1": "91 5 4",
          "sense": "live for the moment",
          "word": "gather rosebuds"
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          "_dis1": "95 4 2",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "花開堪折直須折"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 4 2",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "huā kāi kān zhé zhí xū zhé",
          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "花开堪折直须折"
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          "_dis1": "95 4 2",
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "pluk de dag"
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          "_dis1": "95 4 2",
          "code": "fi",
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "tartu hetkeen"
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        {
          "_dis1": "95 4 2",
          "code": "fr",
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "cueillir le jour"
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          "_dis1": "95 4 2",
          "code": "fr",
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "gríptu daginn"
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "cogliere l'attimo"
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          "code": "la",
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          "word": "carpe diem"
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          "code": "no",
          "lang": "Norwegian",
          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "gripe dagen"
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          "code": "pl",
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
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          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "fånga dagen"
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          "sense": "enjoy the present",
          "word": "günü yakala"
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        "To make the most of today by achieving fulfillment in a philosophical or spiritual sense."
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        "(idiomatic) To make the most of today by achieving fulfillment in a philosophical or spiritual sense."
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          "ref": "1992, Richard Nixon, “The Real World”, in Seize the Moment, Simon & Schuster, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 13–14",
          "text": "IN toasting the beginning of a new relationship between China and the United States in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing twenty years ago, I quoted from a poem in which Mao Zedong exhorted his followers to work for the victory of communism: \"So many deeds cry out to be done always urgently. The world rolls on. Time passes. Seize the day. Seize the hour.\" Today, as we celebrate the defeat of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and the defeat of aggression in the Persian Gulf, many deeds remain to be done abroad and at home. We must seize the moment to win victory for peace and freedom in the world.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "To attack the day's efforts with vigor and purpose."
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        "(idiomatic) To attack the day's efforts with vigor and purpose."
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          "_dis1": "35 16 49",
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          "_dis1": "35 16 49",
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}
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        "To enjoy the present and not worry about the future; to live for the moment."
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        "(idiomatic) To enjoy the present and not worry about the future; to live for the moment."
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        "(idiomatic) To attack the day's efforts with vigor and purpose."
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "live for the moment",
      "word": "carpe diem"
    },
    {
      "sense": "live for the moment",
      "word": "gather rosebuds"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "花開堪折直須折"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "huā kāi kān zhé zhí xū zhé",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "花开堪折直须折"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "pluk de dag"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "tartu hetkeen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "cueillir le jour"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "carpe diem"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "nutze den Tag"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "élj a mának"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "gríptu daginn"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "cogliere l'attimo"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "carpe diem"
    },
    {
      "code": "no",
      "lang": "Norwegian",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "gripe dagen"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "chwytaj dzień"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "carpe diem"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "colhe o dia"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "aproveita o momento"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "loví momént",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "лови́ моме́нт"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "aprovecha el día"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "fånga dagen"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "enjoy the present",
      "word": "günü yakala"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Horace",
    "Seize the Day"
  ],
  "word": "seize the day"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.