How to Use dawn on in a Sentence

dawn on

phrasal verb
  • The fact that there was no fortune appears to have started dawning on Sharma the night that Zac died.
    Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
  • What dawned on me that day was that love-watching and hate-watching are essentially the same thing.
    Smriti Mundhra, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Aug. 2023
  • That’s a reality that has dawned on some of the principal actors at Bucharest in 2008.
    Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 10 July 2023
  • While my mind had been racing with potential next steps moments before, this idea hadn't dawned on me.
    Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Apr. 2024
  • Among the most famous are the Orionids, which will peak before dawn on October 21, and the Leonids will light up skies in mid-November.
    Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Ukrainian air defense teams managed to shoot down the missiles aimed at Kyiv before dawn on Monday.
    Marc Santora, New York Times, 11 Dec. 2023
  • The gunmen arrived at dawn on motorcycles, horses and in cars.
    Cora Engelbrecht, New York Times, 7 June 2023
  • Before dawn on March 28, Mr. Albright went to Pittsburgh for an echocardiogram.
    Emily Baumgaertner Brian Kaiser, New York Times, 16 Aug. 2023
  • But eventually, the power of sports sponsorships dawned on me.
    Michael Schreiber, Rolling Stone, 2 June 2023
  • The marine layer will form again before dawn on Saturday, becoming at least 2,000 feet deep in some areas.
    Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Oct. 2023
  • But by the next day, the reality of the situation seemed to dawn on Belosic, who canceled his return flight to California and joined Badalian and Rodriguez on their drive back west.
    Samuel Braslow, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Aug. 2023
  • The low temperature dipped only to 91 degrees before dawn on Tuesday.
    Jack Healy, New York Times, 11 July 2023
  • One hour before dawn on March 19, law-enforcement officers in Little Rock, Ark., broke into a home to execute a search warrant.
    Patrick Jaicomo, National Review, 15 June 2024
  • The gravity of the problem is dawning on some members of the foreign policy community.
    Daniel W. Drezner, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2019
  • So much dawns on Richie — these bigger issues become more terrestrial.
    Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 27 June 2023
  • A bit of context: Just before dawn on the seventeenth, dozens of students had fanned out across the east lawn to demand that the university curtail investments in companies with ties to Israel.
    Nina Berman, The New Yorker, 2 May 2024
  • Authorities say Powell, 33, of Los Angeles, began the string of attacks before dawn on Nov. 26.
    James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2023
  • Yet a sense of loneliness gradually dawns on him as a consequence of the aimless pleasures and social isolation.
    Gregory M. Collins, National Review, 27 Dec. 2023
  • With or without Washington, a new reality is dawning on Mesopotamia.
    Ali Khedery, Foreign Affairs, 22 Sep. 2015
  • Before dawn on Friday, police in riot gear started breaking down tents and arresting students who had been refusing to leave.
    Tovia Smith, NPR, 10 May 2024
  • The note was dropped in the mailbox at the Sena family’s home before dawn on Monday, and fingerprints on the note were instrumental in identifying Ross as a suspect, officials said.
    Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN, 3 Oct. 2023
  • The shower’s activity peaks around midnight on August 12 until dawn on August 13.
    Stephanie Vermillion, Travel + Leisure, 1 Aug. 2023
  • A day after First Republic reported earnings that fell far short of analysts’ estimates, the full extent of the challenges facing the bank are dawning on investors.
    Gillian Tan, Fortune, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Explosions rocked the area around one of Russia’s largest military hubs before dawn on Thursday, and local officials later said that air defenses had shot down two drones.
    Marc Santora, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2023
  • After waking before dawn on Catalina Island beneath a vast bowlful of stars, 100 elite athletes prepared to cross the open ocean to Manhattan Beach using only their arms for power.
    Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2023
  • The videos reviewed by The Post show a mother and her children driven off in a truck, foreign workers held in a subterranean room and young people taken from an all-night desert rave attacked shortly after dawn on Saturday.
    Sarah Cahlan, Washington Post, 12 Oct. 2023
  • On the day of jury selection, a factual inconsistency dawned on me that ultimately led to my client’s acquittal.
    John "johnny" Weekes, Sun Sentinel, 26 June 2024
  • The magnitude of the moment seemed to dawn on Staley as the confetti rained down on her team after another successful season, breaking down in tears as her championship-winning squad celebrated reaching the mountain top yet again.
    Ben Morse, CNN, 8 Apr. 2024
  • As the reality of their dismal sales volumes dawns on them, more carmakers are reconsidering their options amid a glut of models that all eke out a fringe existence in a country dominated by industry leader Tesla.
    Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 2 Aug. 2023
  • This reality is already starting to dawn on American and British policymakers, who are realizing that China could use chips inside smart devices to spy on or even control smart cars, emergency response systems, and everyday consumer electronics.
    Sihao Huang, Foreign Affairs, 11 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dawn on.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: