shank of the evening

shank of the evening

Twilight, dusk. This expression uses shank in the sense of “latter part of ” or “end of,” a usage rare except in this phrase. The earliest citation in the OED is from 1828. P. G. Wodehouse used it in Pearls, Girls, and Monty Bodkin (1972), “‘It’s very late.’—‘Shank of the evening.’”See also: evening, of, shank