From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishRelated topics: Militarydawn raidˌdawn ˈraid noun [countable]PMan attack or operation by soldiers or police that happens very early in the morningExamples from the Corpusdawn raid• They also recovered some stolenammunition during a dawn raid on this flat in Notting Hill.• A dawn raid by about 200 heavily armedlawofficersbagged more than 30 members and associates of the white-supremacist prisongang.• Almost his first action was a post-election dawn raid in July 1983 on departmental budgets.From Longman Business Dictionarydawn raidˌdawn ˈraid noun [countable]FINANCE when a company suddenly buys a large number of shares in another company at the start of trading on a stockexchange, in an attempt to get control of itA dawn raid gives the board of the target company little time to react or advise its shareholders.dawn raidˌdawn ˈraidFINANCEan occasion when someone buys a lot of shares in a company in the first few minutes of the day’s trading, in an attempt to get control of itA dawn raid allows the build-up of a significant stake in a target company within a matter of hours, giving the board of the target company little time to react or advise its shareholders. →raid