a. (with a and pl.). The holiday period at the end of a week’s work, usually extending from Saturday noon or Friday night to Monday; esp., this holiday when spent away from home.
1879. N. & Q., Ser. V. XII. 428/2. In Staffordshire, if a person leaves home at the end of his week’s work on the Saturday afternoon to spend the evening of Saturday and the following Sunday with friends at a distance, he is said to be spending his week-end at So-and-so.
1889. Miss Braddon, Day will Come, xxiv. Theodore and his friend betook themselves to Cheriton Chase on the following Friday, for that kind of visit which north country people describe as ‘a week end.’
1892. Times, 18 March, 8/2. They had evidently taken the house for week-ends.
1899. S. R. Gardiner, O. Cromwell, vi. 192. Oliver … may be regarded as the inventor of that modified form of enjoyment to which hard-worked citizens have, in our day, given the name of the ‘week-end.’
1905. Spectator, 26 Aug., 289/1. What a ‘week-end’ it must have been for the host, whatever it may have been for the guest.
attrib. 1887. Advt. of G. W. R. (in Lancs.), Week-end tickets.
1896. Hetton-le-Hole (Durham) Gloss., s.v., ‘Week-end trips’ are now advertised on most of the [railway] lines.
b. The period from Saturday to Monday during which business is suspended and shops are closed.
1878. J. Almond, Bunch of Water-cresses, 4. If I get my ’bacco now, I can manage to see th’ week-end o’er very well.
1913. Times, 13 Sept., 17/3. The Money Market was steady with a fair demand for advances over the week-end at about previous rates.
c. The end (i.e., the last day) of the week; Saturday. dial.
1830. C. H. Poole, Staffs. Gloss., Week-end, Saturday.
Hence Week-end v. intr., to spend a week-end holiday. Week-ending vbl. sb. Also Week-ender, one who spends the week-ends away from home.
1880. N. & Q., Ser. VI. I. 42. Lodging-house keepers and tradesmen in Llandudno, Rhyl, and other holiday resorts in n. Wales, employ the derivative form ‘week-enders’ … when they speak of … visitors who come on Saturday and go on Monday.
1901. C. G. Harper, Gt. North Road, I. 144. Three bedrooms for the use of the week-enders.
1901. Daily Chron., 31 July, 7/2. Where shall we week end?
1905. Sat. Rev., 14 Oct., 490/1. Saturday morning is quite time enough for the week-enders to get away.
1906. B. Vaughan, Sins of Society, 66. You see ‘week-endings’ have become part of the British Constitution, and nowadays everybody who is anybody has to be out of town in the season, say from Saturday to Tuesday.
1913. W. J. Locke, Stella Maris, xv. 201. Where have you been week-ending?
1914. A. N. Lyons, Simple Simon, I. iii. 42. He week-ends at Paris-Plage.
