year-end gift
A gift given at the end of the year to express gratitude, typically to superiors, clients, or teachers. Often used with the honorific prefix お (お歳暮).
See also: お歳暮
今年も取引先にお歳暮を贈ります。
We will send year-end gifts to our business partners again this year.
I sent a year-end gift to someone who had helped me.
I chose a year-end gift at the department store's year-end gift section.
Literary or formal term for the end of the year. In everyday speech, 年末 (ねんまつ) is more common.
歳暮の候、皆様にはますますご清栄のこととお慶び申し上げます。
As the year draws to a close, I hope this finds you all in good health and spirits.
歳暮の候、皆様のご健勝をお祈り申し上げます。
At this end of the year, I wish you all good health.
I had a hard time choosing a year-end gift.
歳末 and 歳暮 are both literary terms for the year's end, but 歳末 is more common in set phrases like 歳末セール, while 歳暮 strongly evokes the gift-giving custom.
年の暮れ is a poetic, everyday-literary phrase for the year's end, whereas 歳暮 is a more formal Sino-Japanese term with the same meaning.
歳暮 is the year-end gift given in December, the seasonal counterpart to the summer 中元.
歳暮 is the plain noun for a year-end gift, while お歳暮 adds the polite prefix お and is the form normally used in speech and writing.
お中元 is the mid-summer gift-giving custom, while 歳暮 refers to the parallel custom of gift-giving at the end of the year.
歳末 refers to the year-end period itself, while 歳暮 refers to a year-end gift given to someone; they share kanji but differ in meaning.
year-end gift · end of the year; year end
From 歳 (year) + 暮 (end, close). The gift sense derives from the custom of giving presents at the end of the year.