| 释义 |
sunset|ˈsʌnsɛt|
Also 4–6 sonne, sunne set, 5 sonsett, 6 soonne sette; 7 sunnes-set.
[app. f. sun n.1 + set n.1, but perhaps arising partly (like sunrise) from a clause (e.g. ere the sunne set).
OE. (Northumb.) sunset (Lindisf. Gosp.) was prob. an adoption of ON. sólarseta, -setr: see set n.1, etym. note.]
1. a. The setting, or apparent descent below the horizon, of the sun at the end of the day; the time when the sun sets, the close of day. Also, the glow of light or display of colour in the sky when the sun sets.
1390Gower Conf. III. 257 Riht evene upon the Sonne set. a1400–50Wars Alex. 3050 Als sone as þe son vp soȝt þe slaȝtere begynnes, And so to þe son-sett [Dubl. MS. And to sett was þe same] slakid þai neuire. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 257 b, At the houre of complyn, whiche is aboute the sonne set. 1542Udall in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 6 In the evenyng after soonne sette. 1599Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 5 Thrice a day, at sun⁓rise, at noone, and sun-set. 1623Fletcher & Rowley Maid in Mill iv. ii, It has lasted Too many Sun-sets. 1711Addison Spect. No. 110 ⁋1 The Butler desired me with a very grave Face not to venture my self in it after Sun-set. 1822Byron Heaven & Earth i. i, They have kindled all the west, Like a returning sunset. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 39 After sunset, the horizon burned and glowed with rich crimson orange lustre. 1873B. Harte What B. Harte Saw in Fiddletown, etc. 98 A flash of water, tremulous and tinted with sunset. 1874Burnand My Time xi. 90 The Jews begin their Sabbath on Friday at sunset.
b. to ride (go, sail, etc.) off into the sunset, phr. derived from a conventional closing scene of many films used, freq. ironically, to denote a happy ending.
1967H. Harrison Technicolor Time Machine (1968) iii. 28 He takes the girl with him and together they sail into the sunset to a new life. 1976W. Goldman Magic iii. xii. 207, I didn't even bother getting mad at your crack about me going off into the sunset. 1977Times 17 Feb. 6/4 Our black hero..rides off to freedom in the sunset.
2. fig. Decline or close, esp. of a period of prosperity or the like.
[1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 128 When the Sun sets, the Earth doth drizzle daew, But for the Sunset of my Brothers Sonne, It raines downright.] 1613W. Basse (title) Great Brittaines Sunnes-set, bewailed with a shower of teares. 1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 2 Old age..may be called the sunne set of our dayes. 1690Temple Misc. ii. iv. 45 So many Ages after the Sun-set of the Roman Learning and Empire together. 1801Campbell Lochiel's Warning 55 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before. 1898Illingworth Div. Imman. i. 1 The gloom that darkens, or the hope that glorifies the sunset of our days.
3. a. attrib. and Comb., as sunset clock, sunset hue, sunset light, sunset mist, sunset ray; sunset-blue, sunset-flushed, sunset-lighted, sunset-purpled, sunset-red (also as n.), sunset-ripened, sunset-tinted adjs.; sunset-gun, a gun fired at sunset; sunset home, a home (home n. 8) for the elderly, a ‘twilight’ home; sunset industry, an old and declining industry. Also quasi-adj. = western, westerly, as sunset clime, and quasi-adv. = westward, as sunset-gazing.
1874R. Tyrwhitt Our Sketching Club 68 Any *sunset-blue tint,—say cobalt and rose-madder.
a1853G. P. Morris Poems (1860) 155 All this *sunset clime became Familiar with Victoria's name.
1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 7 True to his *sunset-clock he kept, His Goody and his cot to find.
1833Tennyson Lotos-Eaters 17 Far off, three mountain-tops..Stood *sunset-flush'd.
1902W. Watson Coronat. Ode, Deira with her sea-face to the morn, And Cambria *sunset-gazing.
1840Thoreau Jrnl. 16 June in Writings (1906) VII. 141 To hear..the bittern begin to boom from his concealed fort like a *sunset gun! 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. ii, There was a conwict off last night..after sunset-gun.
1978Dædalus Spring 220 A society that increasingly emphasizes..singles bars for the young and..*sunset homes for the elderly.
1899Westm. Gaz. 30 Nov. 2/1 Draperies of silk of *sunset hues.
1980,1983*Sunset industry [see sunrise industry s.v. sunrise b].
1886Stevenson Kidnapped viii, I wondered..at the lateness of the *sunset light.
1898Watts-Dunton Aylwin xiii. iv, Masses of *sunset mist.
1838Ld. Houghton Switzerland & Italy v, The *sunset-purpled ground.
1837E. B. Browning Epistle to Canary (1913) 11 A spark of light from highest dawn, Which glows and opens..till *sunset reds are likest to them. 1934Webster, Sunset-red adj. 1964New Yorker 5 Sept. 86 (Advt.), Slip into the run-about shift{ddd}mirage aqua, sunset-red, cactus-green, burnt-clay. 1979Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. (Parade Suppl.) 24/2 (Advt.), These are handsome..books, smartly bound in sunset red, desert tan and cavalry blue.
1833Tennyson Hesperides iv. 21 The luscious fruitage..*Sunset-ripened.
1876J. G. Whittier Mabel Martin (new ed.) 40 And sad the uncompanioned eves, And sadder *sunset-tinted leaves. 1954L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel 33 The sunset-tinted Balloons were down.
b. N. Amer. Pol. Applied to legislation whereby a government agency or programme is automatically terminated at the end of a fixed period unless formally renewed.
1976National Observer (U.S.) 5 June 1/1 The hottest political idea of the year is something called the sunset bill. Ibid. 1/5 Colorado recently became the first state to adopt sunset legislation. 1976Wall St. Jrnl. 25 June 1/1 Colorado's new ‘Sunset Law’. The experimental measure would terminate in six years the state's regulatory agencies..unless they justify their existence. 1978Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Feb. 1/3 The Ontario Government is on the verge of embracing sunset law. 1982Times 25 Feb. 7/8 It is not a wilderness protection Bill..but a wilderness sunset Bill, that would end wilderness protection.
Hence (N. Amer.) ˈsunset v., (a) intr., to decline, sink (rare); (b) trans., to subject to, or terminate by means of, sunset legislation (see sense 3 b above); ˈsunsetty a. (U.S.), suggestive of sunset.
1869Mrs. Whitney We Girls i, ‘West over’..We always thought it was a pretty, sunsetty name. 1893T. N. Page Ole Virginia 45 Her arms so white, an' her face sort o' sunsetty. 1933V. McNabb Nazareth or Social Chaos 30 The prodigal's prosperity which sunsets in beggary. 1978Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News 1 June (oral quot.), [The] act would be sunsetted out of existence. 1979National Jrnl. 17 Mar. 438/1 In the debate on the sunset bill..when it was passed by the Senate, we tried to figure out what exactly they thought they were sunsetting. 1982N.Y. Times 28 Sept. b.10/4 His impatience is also displayed in his plans to ‘sunset’ the aeronautics board well before it is scheduled to expire. |