Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

dawn

2 verb
     
dawn2 [intransitive]
1 if day or morning dawns, it begins:
The morning dawned fresh and clear after the storm.
2 literary if a period of time or situation dawns, it begins:
The age of Darwin had dawned.
3 formal if a feeling or idea dawns, you have it for the first time:
It began to dawn that something was wrong.

dawn on somebody

phrasal verb
if a fact dawns on you, you realize it for the first time:
The ghastly truth dawned on me.
It dawned on me that Jo had been right all along.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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