dawn on

• dawn upon

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dawn on (third-person singular simple present dawns on, present participle dawning on, simple past and past participle dawned on)

1. (idiomatic, of an idea) To occur to somebody; to be realized by.

   It finally dawned on him that he could automate the process instead of doing it by hand each time.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.

   • 1943 September and October, Chas. S. Lake, “Some Continental Travel Experiences (1922-1934)—IV”, in Railway Magazine, page 287:

     "Sir," he remarked, "you have been robbed," and then it suddenly dawned on me that it must have taken place as I was passing the men congregated in the corridor.

   • 2013 September 13, Russell Brand, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     What dawned on me as the night went on is that even in apparently frivolous conditions the establishment asserts control, and won't tolerate having that assertion challenged, even flippantly, by that most beautifully adept tool: comedy.

• see daylight
• see the light
• wake up to something

• nandow