ˈnightfall
[f. night n. + fall n.1]
1. The coming on of night; the time of dusk.
| 1700 Farquhar Constant Couple ii. iv, No man is seen to come into this house after nightfall. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xx, Whenever I approached a peasant's house towards nightfall, I played one of my most merry tunes. 1812 L. Hunt in Examiner 24 Aug. 538/1 By night-fall the enemy had betaken themselves to flight. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 342 The traveller at nightfall would have found the inn where he had expected to sup and lodge deserted. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset II. lvi. 133 Had he talked on the subject till nightfall no such word would have been spoken. |
2. (See quot.) So night-falling. rare—0.
| 1611 Cotgrave, La groüée des fruicts, that fruit which falls in the night; wind-falls, night-falls, night-wind-falls. 1632 Sherwood, The night-fallings of fruites. |