Emily Dickinson Lexicon

THANKS'GIV-ING, n.

1. The act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies. Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if received with thanksgiving. 1 Tim. iv.
2. A public celebration of divine goodness; also, a day set apart for religious services, specially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of his bounties. The practice of appointing an annual thanksgiving originated in New England.