matins

mattins

/ (ˈmætɪnz) /


noun(functioning as singular or plural)
    • mainly RC Church the first of the seven canonical hours of prayer, originally observed at night but now often recited with lauds at daybreak

    • the service of morning prayer in the Church of England

  1. literary a morning song, esp of birds

Origin of matins

1
C13: from Old French, ultimately from Latin mātūtīnus of the morning, from Mātūta goddess of dawn

Words Nearby matins

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use matins in a sentence

  • Damme, where the patriots mustered on the eve of the Bruges matins, is within a short hour's stroll from the east end of the town.

    Belgium | George W. T. (George William Thomson) Omond
  • Full choral matins at seven o'clock in the morning all the year round.

    A Thin Ghost and Others | M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James
  • The bell was that of the “faire chappell” on 142 the green outside the gatehouse, and it was calling to matins.

  • The days when the thrushes sang matins were come, and all the way she heard freshets of holy song pouring down through the air.

    Plashers Mead | Compton Mackenzie
  • They added, "that, with God's help, they hoped not to be caught in their beds as their brethren had been at the Parisian matins."