| / English Dictionary |
TWILIGHT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon but its rays are refracted by the atmosphere of the earth
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("twilight" is a kind of...):
light; visible light; visible radiation ((physics) electromagnetic radiation that can produce a visual sensation)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A condition of decline following successes
Example:
in the twilight of the empire
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("twilight" is a kind of...):
declination; decline (a condition inferior to an earlier condition; a gradual falling off from a better state)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The time of day immediately following sunset
Example:
they finished before the fall of night
Synonyms:
crepuscle; crepuscule; dusk; evenfall; fall; gloam; gloaming; nightfall; twilight
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Hypernyms ("twilight" is a kind of...):
hour; time of day (clock time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "twilight"):
night (a shortening of nightfall)
Holonyms ("twilight" is a part of...):
eve; even; evening; eventide (the latter part of the day (the period of decreasing daylight from late afternoon until nightfall))
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lighted by or as if by twilight
Example:
a boat on a twilit river
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
dark (devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black)
Context examples:
The court was very cool and a little damp, and full of premature twilight, although the sky, high up overhead, was still bright with sunset.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The twilight had closed in and the moon was shining brightly in the sky before my narrative was finished.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Twilight was falling as Martin left the fruit store and turned homeward, his marketing on his arm.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Thither then they both set out in the twilight after the long course of juggling tricks and glee-singing with which the principal meal was concluded.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
He had, as it appears, been returning from Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in bringing in a verdict of ‘death from accidental causes.’ Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of murder.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Mrs. Norris gave the particulars of the letters, and the subject was dropt; but after tea, as Miss Crawford was standing at an open window with Edmund and Fanny looking out on a twilight scene, while the Miss Bertrams, Mr. Rushworth, and Henry Crawford were all busy with candles at the pianoforte, she suddenly revived it by turning round towards the group, and saying, How happy Mr. Rushworth looks!
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
As we walked noiselessly amid the thick, soft carpet of decaying vegetation the hush fell upon our souls which comes upon us in the twilight of the Abbey, and even Professor Challenger's full-chested notes sank into a whisper.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
We could but fall into our places and be content to snail along from Reigate to Horley and on to Povey Cross and over Lowfield Heath, while day shaded away into twilight, and that deepened into night.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there, not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery, but all over the grounds, and especially in the most distant parts of them, where there was something more of wildness than in the rest, where the trees were the oldest, and the grass was the longest and wettest, had—assisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockings—given Marianne a cold so violent as, though for a day or two trifled with or denied, would force itself by increasing ailments on the concern of every body, and the notice of herself.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
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