sunset
(ˈsʌnsɛt)
Also 4–6 sonne, sunne set, 5 sonsett, 6 soonne sette; 7 sunnes-set.
[app. f. sun n.1 + set n.1, but perhaps arising partly (like sunrise) from a clause (e.g. ere the sunne set).
OE. (Northumb.) sunset (Lindisf. Gosp.) was prob. an adoption of ON. sólarseta, -setr: see set n.1, etym. note.]
1. a. The setting, or apparent descent below the horizon, of the sun at the end of the day; the time when the sun sets, the close of day. Also, the glow of light or display of colour in the sky when the sun sets.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 257 Riht evene upon the Sonne set. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 3050 Als sone as þe son vp soȝt þe slaȝtere begynnes, And so to þe son-sett [Dubl. MS. And to sett was þe same] slakid þai neuire. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 257 b, At the houre of complyn, whiche is aboute the sonne set. 1542 Udall in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 6 In the evenyng after soonne sette. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 5 Thrice a day, at sun⁓rise, at noone, and sun-set. 1623 Fletcher & Rowley Maid in Mill iv. ii, It has lasted Too many Sun-sets. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 110 ¶1 The Butler desired me with a very grave Face not to venture my self in it after Sun-set. 1822 Byron Heaven & Earth i. i, They have kindled all the west, Like a returning sunset. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 39 After sunset, the horizon burned and glowed with rich crimson orange lustre. 1873 B. Harte What B. Harte Saw in Fiddletown, etc. 98 A flash of water, tremulous and tinted with sunset. 1874 Burnand My Time xi. 90 The Jews begin their Sabbath on Friday at sunset. |
b. to ride (go, sail, etc.) off into the sunset,
phr. derived from a conventional closing scene of many films used,
freq. ironically, to denote a happy ending.
| 1967 H. Harrison Technicolor Time Machine (1968) iii. 28 He takes the girl with him and together they sail into the sunset to a new life. 1976 W. Goldman Magic iii. xii. 207, I didn't even bother getting mad at your crack about me going off into the sunset. 1977 Times 17 Feb. 6/4 Our black hero..rides off to freedom in the sunset. |
2. fig. Decline or close,
esp. of a period of prosperity or the like.
| [1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 128 When the Sun sets, the Earth doth drizzle daew, But for the Sunset of my Brothers Sonne, It raines downright.] 1613 W. Basse (title) Great Brittaines Sunnes-set, bewailed with a shower of teares. 1621 T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 2 Old age..may be called the sunne set of our dayes. 1690 Temple Misc. ii. iv. 45 So many Ages after the Sun-set of the Roman Learning and Empire together. 1801 Campbell Lochiel's Warning 55 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before. 1898 Illingworth Div. Imman. i. 1 The gloom that darkens, or the hope that glorifies the sunset of our days. |
3. a. attrib. and
Comb., as
sunset clock,
sunset hue,
sunset light,
sunset mist,
sunset ray;
sunset-blue,
sunset-flushed,
sunset-lighted,
sunset-purpled,
sunset-red (also as
n.),
sunset-ripened,
sunset-tinted adjs.;
sunset-gun, a gun fired at sunset;
sunset home, a home (
home n. 8) for the elderly, a ‘twilight’ home;
sunset industry, an old and declining industry. Also
quasi-adj. = western, westerly, as
sunset clime, and
quasi-adv. = westward, as
sunset-gazing.
| 1874 R. Tyrwhitt Our Sketching Club 68 Any *sunset-blue tint,—say cobalt and rose-madder. |
| a 1853 G. P. Morris Poems (1860) 155 All this *sunset clime became Familiar with Victoria's name. |
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 7 True to his *sunset-clock he kept, His Goody and his cot to find. |
| 1833 Tennyson Lotos-Eaters 17 Far off, three mountain-tops..Stood *sunset-flush'd. |
| 1902 W. Watson Coronat. Ode, Deira with her sea-face to the morn, And Cambria *sunset-gazing. |
| 1840 Thoreau Jrnl. 16 June in Writings (1906) VII. 141 To hear..the bittern begin to boom from his concealed fort like a *sunset gun! 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. ii, There was a conwict off last night..after sunset-gun. |
| 1978 Dædalus Spring 220 A society that increasingly emphasizes..singles bars for the young and..*sunset homes for the elderly. |
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 30 Nov. 2/1 Draperies of silk of *sunset hues. |
| 1980, 1983 *Sunset industry [see sunrise industry s.v. sunrise b]. |
| 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped viii, I wondered..at the lateness of the *sunset light. |
| 1898 Watts-Dunton Aylwin xiii. iv, Masses of *sunset mist. |
| 1838 Ld. Houghton Switzerland & Italy v, The *sunset-purpled ground. |
| 1837 E. B. Browning Epistle to Canary (1913) 11 A spark of light from highest dawn, Which glows and opens..till *sunset reds are likest to them. 1934 Webster, Sunset-red adj. 1964 New Yorker 5 Sept. 86 (Advt.), Slip into the run-about shift{ddd}mirage aqua, sunset-red, cactus-green, burnt-clay. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. (Parade Suppl.) 24/2 (Advt.), These are handsome..books, smartly bound in sunset red, desert tan and cavalry blue. |
| 1833 Tennyson Hesperides iv. 21 The luscious fruitage..*Sunset-ripened. |
| 1876 J. G. Whittier Mabel Martin (new ed.) 40 And sad the uncompanioned eves, And sadder *sunset-tinted leaves. 1954 L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel 33 The sunset-tinted Balloons were down. |
b. N. Amer. Pol. Applied to legislation whereby a government agency or programme is automatically terminated at the end of a fixed period unless formally renewed.
| 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 5 June 1/1 The hottest political idea of the year is something called the sunset bill. Ibid. 1/5 Colorado recently became the first state to adopt sunset legislation. 1976 Wall St. Jrnl. 25 June 1/1 Colorado's new ‘Sunset Law’. The experimental measure would terminate in six years the state's regulatory agencies..unless they justify their existence. 1978 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Feb. 1/3 The Ontario Government is on the verge of embracing sunset law. 1982 Times 25 Feb. 7/8 It is not a wilderness protection Bill..but a wilderness sunset Bill, that would end wilderness protection. |
Hence (
N. Amer.)
ˈsunset v., (
a)
intr., to decline, sink (
rare); (
b)
trans., to subject to, or terminate by means of, sunset legislation (see sense 3 b above);
ˈsunsetty a. (
U.S.), suggestive of sunset.
| 1869 Mrs. Whitney We Girls i, ‘West over’..We always thought it was a pretty, sunsetty name. 1893 T. N. Page Ole Virginia 45 Her arms so white, an' her face sort o' sunsetty. 1933 V. McNabb Nazareth or Social Chaos 30 The prodigal's prosperity which sunsets in beggary. 1978 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News 1 June (oral quot.), [The] act would be sunsetted out of existence. 1979 National Jrnl. 17 Mar. 438/1 In the debate on the sunset bill..when it was passed by the Senate, we tried to figure out what exactly they thought they were sunsetting. 1982 N.Y. Times 28 Sept. b.10/4 His impatience is also displayed in his plans to ‘sunset’ the aeronautics board well before it is scheduled to expire. |