▪ I. sunlight, n.
(ˈsʌnlaɪt)
[f. sun n.1 + light n.; cf. WFris. sinneljacht, MDu. sonnelicht, (Du. zonlicht), OHG. sunnalioht and sunnûn lioht (MHG. sunnenlieht, G. sonnenlicht).]
1. a. The light of the sun.
| c 1205 Lay. 17863 Wel neh al swa brihte swa þe sunne-lihte. c 1375 Cursor M. 18819 (Fairf.) Angels ar briȝter þen sunneliȝ t. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 220 His wif..Lay with the king the longe nyht, Til that it was hih Sonne lyht. 1535 Coverdale 2 Sam. xii. 12, I wyl do this in the sighte of all Israel, and by Sonne lighte. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 1087 Woods impenetrable To Starr or Sun-light. 1833 Tennyson Lady of Shalott iii. iv, His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. v. 38 When we pass from open sunlight to a moderately illuminated room. 1893 Sir R. Ball Story of Sun 290 To carbon..belongs the distinction of being the main source whence sunlight is dispensed. |
b. fig.: cf. sunshine 2.
| 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 532 Christ is..the verie sunne light of the preaching of the Gospell. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola Introd., The faces of the little children, making another sunlight amid the shadows of age. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 421 In such a sunlight of prosperity. 1891 Farrar Darkn. & Dawn lxvi, The sleek priest..continued to live in the sunlight of Court favour. |
c. artificial sunlight: see artificial a. 5.
2. (Properly with hyphen.) = sun-burner.
| 1862–7 J. Wylde's Circ. Sci. I. 34/1 The introduction of ‘sunlights’..aids in promoting ventilation. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 192 Sunlights may be..used in somewhat low and ceiled buildings. |
3. attrib. and Comb.
| 1863 Boyd Graver Thts. Country Parson 192 Who will vivify into sunlight clearness every sound and true belief. 1896 Spectator 7 Mar. 339 Living air, and sunlight-gold. |
▪ II. ˈsunlight, a. poet. rare.
[f. sun n.1 + light a.2 or sunlight n. after starlight adj.]
= sunlit.
| 1818 Shelley Euganean Hills 82 Their [sc. rooks'] plumes..Gleam above the sunlight woods. 1895 R. W. Chambers King in Yellow, Repairer of Reput. ii. (1909) 28 The craft which churned the sunlight waters. |