sun
see also: Sun, SUN
Pronunciation Proper noun
  1. The star that the Earth revolves around and from which it receives light and warmth.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
Translations

see sun/translations

Noun

sun

  1. (astronomy) A star, especially when seen as the centre of any single solar system.
  2. The light and warmth which is received from the sun; sunshine or sunlight.
    • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:
      Lambs that did frisk in the sun.
    • 1835, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Knight of Provençe, and His Proposal”, in Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC ↗, book II (The Revolution), page 184 ↗:
      His fair hair waved long and freely over a white and unwrinkled forehead: the life of a camp and the suns of Italy had but little embrowned his clear and healthful complexion, which retained much of the bloom of youth.
  3. (figurative) Something like the sun in brightness or splendor.
    • 1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC ↗, Psalmes 84:11, folio 253, recto ↗, column 2:
      For the Lord God is the ſunne & ſhield vnto vs: […]
    • 1649 February 19 (Gregorian calendar), attributed to Charles I of England, “Upon their seizing the Kings Magazines, Forts, Navy, and Militia”, in Έἰκὼν Βασιλική [Éikṑn Basilikḗ]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings: […], [London: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams], →OCLC ↗, page 65 ↗:
      […] I will never conſent to put out the Sun of Sovereigntie to all Poſterity, […]
  4. (uncountable, chiefly, literary) Sunrise or sunset.
    • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii], page 381 ↗, columns 1–2:
      Imo[gen]. […] Prythee ſpeake, / How many ſtore of Miles may we well rid / Twixt houre, and houre? / Piſ[anio]. One ſcore 'twixt Sun, and Sun, / Madam's enough for you: and too much too. / Imo[gen]. Why, one that rode to's Excution Man, / Could neuer go ſo ſlow: […]
    • 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Discontents, Cares, Miseries, &c. causes”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 10, page 110 ↗:
      [W]hileſt many an hunger-ſtarved poore creature pines in the ſtreet, wants clothes to cover him, labours hard all day long, runs, rides for a trifle, fights peradventure from Sun to Sun, ſick and ill, weary, full of paine and griefe, is in great diſtreſſe and ſorrow of heart.
  5. A revolution of the Earth around the Sun; a year.
  6. A transversing of the sky by the Sun; a day.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC ↗:
      Four suns since was the word brought to me from ‘She-who-must-be-obeyed,’ ‘White men come; if white men come, slay them not.’ Let them be brought to the house of ‘She-who-must-be-obeyed.’
  7. The nineteenth trump/major arcana card of the tarot.
  8. (cartomancy) The thirty-first Lenormand card.
Translations

see sun/translations

Verb

sun (suns, present participle sunning; simple past and past participle sunned)

  1. (transitive) To expose to the warmth and radiation of the sun.
    Synonyms: apricate
    Beautiful bodies lying on the beach, sunning their bronzed limbs.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
      Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines. A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
  2. (transitive) To warm or dry in the sunshine.
  3. (intransitive) To be exposed to the sun.
  4. (intransitive, alternative medicine) To expose the eyes to the sun as part of the Bates method.
Translations

see sun/translations

Etymology 2

From Japanese .

Noun

sun (plural suns)

  1. A traditional Japanese unit of length, approximately 30.3 millimetres (1.193 inches).
Noun

sun (uncountable)

  1. Alternative form of sunn

Sun
Etymology 1

From Middle English sunne, from Old English sunna, sunne, from Proto-Germanic *sunnǭ, from the heteroclitic inanimate Proto-Indo-European , oblique form of *sóh₂wl̥.

Pronunciation
  • (British, America) IPA: /sʌn/
Proper noun
  1. The star at the center of the Solar System (our solar system), which shines in our sky, represented in astronomy and astrology by ☉.
  2. The 91st sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
  3. (newspapers) An English tabloid newspaper.
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Noun

sun (plural suns)

  1. Abbreviation of Sunday
Translations
  • French: dim.
  • German: So., Son., Sonnt.
  • Portuguese: dom
Etymology 3

From Mandarin - 孫, Wade-Giles romanization: Sun¹.

Proper noun
  1. Surname.

SUN
Proper noun
  1. (rail transport) The station code of Sunny Bay in Hong Kong.



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary