banyan day
In British naval tradition, a day of the week when galley kitchens served no meat on board ship.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The ship crew eats only vegetables on a banyan day.”
“Because the ship ran low on supplies, the captain declared that Friday would be a banyan day.”
“The sailors grumbled about the lack of meat, yet they accepted the tradition of the banyan day as a necessary measure for rationing.”
According to the OED, the term is borrowed from the Banyans in the East Indies, a caste that ate nothing that had life.
- 01
a cold day in July
The time of occurrence of an event that will never happen.
- 02
a day late and a dollar short
Too late and too feeble to achieve the desired effect.
- 03
a year and a day
A long time.
- 04
all one's born days
One's whole life.
- 05
as the day is long
Unceasingly; very; thoroughly; to a very high degree.
- 06
bad hair day
A day when things seem to be unmanageable or go wrong.
- 07
bad old days
The past, seen as a time when things were worse.
- 08
black day
A day of great disaster, misfortune or unhappiness.
Last updated August 10, 2026