Meaning of New Year's resolution | Babel Free

Definitions

A vow that one makes on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day for the coming year.

Equivalents

Examples

“He made a New Year’s resolution to quit⟳ smoking.”

“Felt that I had reason⟳, from the stupidity of my heart, to fear that my New-Year's resolutions were made too much in my own⟳ strength.”

“If you direct⟳ me, on your authority as a priest of our Church, to renounce these acquaintances as dangerous, and to put⟳ by all the books of Dissenters, I am here, ready, from this moment, to obey⟳. It shall be my New Year's resolution.”

“Young man—young woman! There [the "book of human character"] is the journal of your daily life; there is the remembrancer that records no compliments, no flatteries, only the plain honest truth; blotted it may be with passages of sin and shame, and let⟳ us hope⟳ here and there with penitent tears; dedicated, let⟳ us pray, for its future pages, with a new year's resolution that shall be answered and blessed in the record⟳.”

“I never saw⟳ but one person who succeeded in keeping a New Year's resolution, and he had pined away so rapidly in his physical and grown so abnormally in his moral man, that it was really painful to look⟳ at him.”

“The public library is safely and surely a blessing to the community. It drives out the dram-shops faster than New Year's resolutions. It is the friend of good manners, clean⟳ homes, and sweet reasonableness.”

“The railway department made one unanimous New Year's resolution,—"To work⟳ for a reduction of accidents, an improvement in service and an increase⟳ in revenue."”

“In a broad sense⟳, New Year's resolutions have⟳ accompanied the world's cultures and civilizations for millennia. As far back as ancient Mesopotamia, people were resolved to set⟳ their affairs in order⟳, clean⟳ their homes, return⟳ borrowed items, settle⟳ debts, and mend⟳ broken relationships before the turn⟳ of each year. […] The Puritans of Great Britain, a radical group of Christians born from the Protestant Reformation, have⟳ been credited with laying the groundwork for the modern New Year's resolutions in the West.”

“Despite her bad-girl persona, Lex had quickly ferreted out the true Amelia, and he undoubtedly already realized she was the type⟳ who would, eventually, want⟳ the white picket fence, kids, the whole deal⟳. Despite his New Year's resolution though … would he want⟳ all that?”

“A 2022 New Year resolution for the industry must be to restore⟳ the publication and distribution of timetables.”

CEFR level