sunsetting Now rare or arch. (superseded by sunset).
(ˈsʌnˌsɛtɪŋ)
[f. sun n.1 + pr. pple. or gerund of set v.1, partly after F. soleil couchant.]
1. = prec. 1.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 484/1 Sunne settynge, or sunne gate downe, occasus. 1565 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 113 Eight of the clock after the sunsetting. 1584 Cogan Haven Health i. (1636) 10 Antoninus..was wont to come to the wrestling place about Sunne-setting. 1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. 176 Gassendus saw one [rainbow] at Sun-setting, whose Supreme Arch almost reached our Zenith. 1712 in J. J. Vernon Parish of Hawick (1900) 99 John Riddell..confest yt he brought home ye load of herring upon the Sabbath att the sunsetting. 1815 Simond Tour Gt. Brit. I. 349 We had another glorious sunsetting. a 1854 J. Wilson in Casquet of Lit. Ser. ii. (1874) I. 164/2 We..used to stalk about..from sunrising to sunsetting. 1868 Morris Earthly Par. (1870) I. i. 346 When anigh to sunsetting it grew. |
2. transf. The region in which the sun sets; the west; with defining word indicating the quarter in which the sun sets at a specified season.
| 1601 Holland Pliny ii. xlvii. I. 23 Betweene the South and the Southwest..namely, betweene the Noone steed, and the Sunsetting in Winter. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 98/1 Bed-chambers for the Winter shou'd look towards the Point at which the Sun rises in Winter, and the Parlour, towards the Equinoctial Sun-setting. 1868 Holme Lee B. Godfrey xix. 110 There were their names on the stone—..looking towards the sunsetting. |
3. fig. = prec. 2.
| 1617 Middleton Triumphs Honor Wks. 1840 V. 619 There is no human glory or renown, But have their evening and their sure sun-setting. |
4. attrib.
| a 1618 [see sunrising c]. 1797–1803 J. Foster in Life & Corr. (1846) I. 208 To paint a sun-setting cloud-scene. |