| 释义 |
twilight, n.|ˈtwaɪlaɪt|
Forms: 5 twyliȝt, -lyghte, twye lyghte, 6 twie light, twylyght, Sc. twa licht, lycht, 6–8 twylight, 6– twilight; also 6–8 with hyphen.
[ME., f. twi- + light n., corresponding to WFris. twieljocht, Du. tweelicht (from 16th c.), LG. twilecht, G. zwielicht. The rare form twilighting is recorded a little earlier. The exact force of twi- here is doubtful: cf. in same sense MHG. zwischenliecht ‘'tweenlight’, and LG. twêdustern, twêdunkern, lit. ‘twi-dark’.]
1. The light diffused by the reflection of the sun's rays from the atmosphere before sunrise, and after sunset; the period during which this prevails between daylight and darkness.
a. Generally.
c1440Promp. Parv. 505/1 Twylyghte, be-twyx þe day and þe nyghte, or nyghte and þe day, hesperus. 1555Eden Decades 32 At the beginnynge of the euenyng twilight..in the morninge twylight. a1600Hooker 2nd Serm. upon Jude §33 He must haue darknes for a vision, hee must stumble at noone daies, as at the twi-light. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 113 It [the grotto of Posilippo] hath no light in the middest, but like twilight,..in the twilight of morning and euening passengers vse torches. 1661Boyle Style of Script. (1675) 99 Faith and the Twilight seeming to agree in this Property, that a mixture of Darkness is requisite to both. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 55 There is little or no Twilight, as there is nearer the Poles. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 52 The twilight is that faint light which opens the morning by little and little in the east, before the sun rises; and gradually shuts in the evening in the west, after the sun is set. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 544 The atmosphere reflecting and refracting the sun's light, forms a twilight at the distance of even 18 degrees.
b. spec. Most commonly applied to the evening twilight, from sunset to dark night. second twilight: see quot. 1883.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 2733 In þe twyliȝt whan þe day gan fade. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. ii. (Percy Soc.) 14 In the fayre twylight, I sate me downe for to rest me all nyght. 1588A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. i vij, Ye quantitie of ye day brake and twa licht (for ye ane is æquall to ye vther) of euerie day. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 598 Now came still Eevning on, and Twilight gray Had in her sober Liverie all things clad. a1700Dryden Cock & Fox 214 When the sun was down, They just arrived by twilight at a town. 1793–6Coleridge Lines on Autumnal Evening 63 When Twilight stole across the fading vale. 1836W. Irving Astoria xlviii. III. 99 A chasm that looked dark and frightful in the gathering twilight. 1883Chambers' Encycl. IX. 604/1 A curious phenomenon, known as the afterglow, or second twilight, often seen in the Nubian desert, is referred by Sir John Herschel to a second reflection of solar light in the atmosphere.
c. Morning twilight, which lasts from daybreak to sunrise.
c1440Promp. Parv. 505/1 Twye lyghte, be-fore the day, diluculum. 1609Daniel Civ. Wars viii. xiv, Upon the twi-light of that day..ere they had full light. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 240 By twilight of the morning we set sayle from Joppa. 1709Stanhope Paraphr. IV. 349 The Law and the Prophets, like the Glimmerings of the Twi-light, dawned first. 1727–46Thomson Summer 637 At once the bright-effulgent sun, Rising direct, swift chases from the sky The short-lived twilight. 1845Browning How they brought the Good News iii, 'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola ii, [She] was weary after her labour in the morning twilight.
2. transf. A dim light resembling twilight; partial illumination.
1667Milton P.L. i. 597 As when the Sun..In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds. 1709Steele Tatler No. 8 ⁋6 A Sable Cloud over-shadowed the whole Land... A Twilight began by Degrees to enlighten the Hemisphere. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ., Captive, I..look'd through the twilight of his grated door. 1819Keats Eve St. Agnes xxix, The faded moon Made a dim, silver twilight. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. I. 264 The church..had a grand effect in its tinted twilight. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xxx, The soft green twilight of an avenue of trees.
3. fig.
a. An intermediate condition or period; a condition before or after full development.
twilight of the gods [transl. of Icel. ragna rökkr, altered from the original ragna rök, the history or judgement of the gods], in Scandinavian Mythol. the destruction of the gods and of the world in conflict with the powers of evil; also transf. Cf. Götterdämmerung, Ragnarök.
c1600Shakes. Sonn. lxxiii, In me thou seest the twi-light of such day, As after Sun-set fadeth in the West. 1679C. Nesse Antichrist 144 As if the twilight of the church in her minority and nonage..exceeded the noon-day of the gospel-church. 1682Dryden Relig. Laici Pref., Wks. (Globe) 186 The twilight of Revelation, after the sun of it was set in the race of Noah. 1768Gray Desc. Odin (note), Lok is the evil Being, who continues in chains till the Twilight of the Gods approaches. 1820Byron Mar. Fal. i. ii. 315 At my hour Of twilight little light of life remains. 1821Scott Kenilw. xii, He is ever in a sort of twilight, that is neither sleeping nor waking. 1877Sparrow Serm. xix. 251 Voltaire was..in the habit of saying that he lived in the twilight of Christianity; meaning thereby, that its sun would soon go down. 1888R. Garnett (title) The twilight of the gods and other tales. 1944Sun (Baltimore) 22 July 2/1 The German nation is split wide open... The twilight of the gods has begun. 1979A. R. Peacocke Creation & World of Science ii. 55 Under the pressure of experimental facts and the bold and convincing analyses of Planck and Einstein, there was, as Karl Heim puts it, a ‘twilight of the gods’ of absolute space, time, object, and determinism.
b. esp. in reference to imperfect mental illumination or perception.
1610Holland Camden's Brit., Irel. ii. 89, I am out of all hope in so great darknesse to discover any twy-light of the truth. 1648Boyle Seraph. Love (1700) 167 The dim Twilight of Human Intellects in this Life. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. iii. 54 Thus blind ignorance was succeeded by a twilight of ‘Sense’. 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) III. xiv. 127 A shadowy twilight of romance enveloped every object. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 307 The minor deities..live in a dim twilight of popular belief.
4. attrib. or as adj.
a. Of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight; seen or done in the twilight.
twilight arc, twilight arch, or twilight curve, the outline of the earth's shadow, which rises in the east as the sun sets, forming an arch which divides the twilight or shaded portion of the sky from that which is lighted by the direct rays of the sun. twilight glow, a diffuse glow in the sky at twilight; spec. in Meteorol., that caused by spectroscopic emission in the upper atmosphere from atoms excited by solar radiation. twilight parallel, the small circle of the celestial sphere, parallel to and 18 degrees below the horizon, at the sun's crossing which evening twilight ceases or morning twilight begins (Webster, 1911). twilight vision, vision in which colours are hardly perceptible owing to the dimness of the light; scotopic vision.
c1633Milton Arcades 99 Nymphs and Shepherds.. Trip no more in twilight ranks. 1754Gray Poesy 56 The muse has broke the twilight-gloom. 1762–9Falconer Shipwr. i. 721 Now Morn advanced Whitening with orient beam the twilight sky. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxxiv, Twilight shade and darkness veil the scene. 1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. lx, When the lingering twilight hour was past. 1819― Juan ii. clxxxviii. 213 The twilight glow, which momently grew less. 1837Lytton E. Maltrav. i. viii, That twilight shower had given a racy and vigorous sweetness to the air. 1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. ii. §10 (1864) 472 There is a point of twilight dimness when objects begin to be doubtful. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xv. 169 It is either all day here, or all night, or a twilight mixture of both. 1921Twilight vision [see rod vision s.v. rod n.1 11 c]. 1924, etc. [see scotopic a.]. 1950Sci. News XV. 17 It has been suspected for many years that the coloured pigment ‘visual purple’, found in the retinas of such animals as frogs, is associated with twilight vision. This supposition has recently become a certainty. 1955Sci. Amer. Sept. 150/3 There is also a twilight glow, about 100 times as intense as the nightglow but not detectable by the eye because of the brighter sky. 1972Ibid. Jan. 80/3 The spectrum of the twilightglow differs from the nightglow spectrum in that certain features disappear shortly after the end of twilight and others are markedly stronger in twilight than they are during the night. 1980F. H. Ludlam Clouds & Storms iv. 77/1 The twilight glow continues to fade and its upper border to descend more rapidly than the sun, but it does not disappear below the horizon until the sun's depression exceeds about 16°, and astronomical twilight ends.
b. fig. Having an intermediate character.
1730T. Boston Mem. vii. (1899) 136 The two days before I had a twilight frame, it being neither day nor night with me. 1825Waterton Wand. S. Amer. iii. i. 211 A kind of twilight state of health, neither ill nor..well.
c. Lighted as by twilight; dim, obscure, shadowy; also fig. of early times.
1629Milton Hymn Nativ. xx, The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. 1632― Penseroso 133 Arched walks of twilight groves And shadows brown..Of pine. 1810Scott Lady of L. vi. Concl., In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 77 Warwick,..founded by King Cymbeline in the twilight ages. 1873Black Pr. Thule viii, Some dim twilight recess—far in among the perilous rocks.
d. fig. Of the nature of or pertaining to imperfect mental light.
a1677Barrow Serm. Acts ii. 38 Wks. 1686 III. 531 Philosophy may yield some twilight glimmerings thereof. 1774Fletcher Salvation by Grace Wks. 1795 IV. 65 Our short⁓sightedness and twilight knowledge do not alter the nature of things. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxix. [xxx], A doubtful, uncertain, and twilight sort of rationality.
e. Special Combs.: twilight area = twilight zone (a) below; twilight home, (a) a home (see home n. 8) for old people or animals; (b) = twilight house; twilight house, a house in a twilight zone (see twilight zone (a) below); hence twilight housing; twilight night Baseball = twi-night; twilight shift, a shift worked between the day shift and the night shift; twilight sleep [tr. G. dämmerschlaf (C. J. Gauss, c 1905)], a state of amnesia and partial analgesia induced by the administration of morphine and scopolamine (hyoscine), esp. to lessen the pains of childbirth; twilight world, (a) a shadowy region; (b) a world characterized by uncertainty, obscurity, or decline; (c) the world which comes to life after sunset, characterized by merry-making or criminal activities; twilight zone, (a) spec., an urban area in which housing is becoming decrepit; (b) gen., an indistinct boundary area combining some of the characteristics of the two areas between which it falls (cf. sense 4 b); (c) occas., a dimly illuminated region.
1960Daily Tel. 18 June 8/3 Where debate begins and should be encouraged is over the question whether redevelopment of what Sir Keith Joseph called the ‘twilight areas’ must wait entirely on these other two housing operations. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 44 A Labour Minister should impose central leadership, large-scale state intervention, in these blighted areas of cities, the twilight areas, which were once genteelly respectable and are now rotting away.
1934Webster, Twilight home, a charitable institution providing a home for aged people. Colloq., Australia. 1966‘K. A. Saddler’ Gilt Edge v. 74 Twilight homes for retired beach donkeys. 1968Guardian 5 Apr. 1/6 A plan to modernise Britain's four million twilight homes has been agreed by the Cabinet. 1978I. Murdoch Sea 493 [I] arranged for her mother to be packed off to a comfortable and expensive ‘twilight home’.
1971New Society 1 July 20/2 There were 600,000 ‘slums’ and about two million ‘twilight’ houses. Ibid., A current comparison of slum and twilight housing. 1971Mod. Law Rev. XXXI. vi. 698 He has sections on..houses in disrepair, on planning blight and on twilight housing areas.
1949P. Cummings Dict. Sports 478/1 Twilight-night. Baseball. A double-header, the first game played late in the afternoon, the second in the evening under lights. 1953Sun (Baltimore) 28 Oct. (b ed.) 21/2 There can be none of those frisky twilight-night double headers. 1970‘C. Aird’ Late Phoenix x. 115 He didn't come home last night after the twilight shift at his factory. 1977Wandsworth Borough News 7 Oct. 18/2 (Advt.), Laundry workers evening shift, 5.30–9.30 p.m. We require a number of part-time workers for clean and simple work on our twilight shift, Monday–Friday.
1912F. Hewitt Anæsthetics & Administration (ed. 4) ix. 278 As a matter of actual experience in hospital practice by no means all patients achieve the state of dammerschlaf, or ‘twilight sleep’, which foreign authors advocate. 1922Joyce Ulysses 159 Twilightsleep idea: queen Victoria was given that. 1971D. D. Moir Pain Relief in Labour i. 5 Twilight sleep is seldom used today because it causes respiratory depression in the new-born and tends to cause delirium and restlessness in the mother. 1981J. Gardner License Renewed xiv. 161 A nice mix—Scopolamine with morphine: twilight sleep, like having a baby.
1887Bowen Virg. æneid iv. 25 Down to the twilight world and the gloom where the buried rest. 1954Koestler Invisible Writing xxvi. 281, I mention this episode as one example of the ambiguities of the twilight world in which we lived. 1963Times 8 May 6/7 But in this unhappy twilight world in which we live in a state of truce—neither peace nor war. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 117 Twilight world, the world of all-night parties. 1977D. Seaman Committee 116 The twilight world of the mentally ill. 1977‘J. D. White’ Salzburg Affair v. 45 The twilight world that exists in every city..the doctor who will tend a bullet wound, the hotel that will provide accommodation without papers.
1909Arena XLI. Mar. 273/2 Such organization will leave no ‘twilight zone’, no ‘no man's land’, for railway corporation dodgers. 1918Policeman's Monthly June 30/1 There still remain twilight zones in most centers of population. 1920J. G. Frederick Great Game of Business iii. 23 Be aware that the test of real ‘honesty’ comes in the ‘twilight zone’ between what is quite clearly honest and dishonest. 1938Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. XLII. 492 The twilight zone extends to about 20° either side of the equi⁓signal zone centre. 1960Daily Tel. 20 June 17/6 There are many towns with ‘twilight zones’ of shabby and out⁓dated houses. 1969Times 29 Jan. 10/7 It lives between 300 and 500 metres below the surface of the ocean, in the region to which light penetrates with such difficulty that it may be considered as a kind of twilight zone. 1981Washington Post 26 Apr. a1/1 Several key officials charged with formulating foreign policy remain in a bureaucratic twilight zone almost 100 days after Reagan's inauguration.
5. In combination with participle or adj., as twilight-enfolded, twilight-hidden, twilight-like, twilight-loving, twilight-seeming, twilight-tinctured adjs.
1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 88 Looking out at the soft *twilight-enfolded square.
a1882Rossetti Ho. Life iv, Thy *twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies.
1839Bailey Festus xix. (1848) 202 A state Of *twilight-like existence.
1745Warton Pleas. Melanch. 267 The *twilight-loving bat.
1821Scott Kenilw. vi, Two silver lamps..diffused a..*twilight-seeming shimmer.
1777Warton Ode Hamlet 5 Morning's *twilight-tinctur'd beam.
Hence ˈtwilight v. trans., to light imperfectly or dimly; ˈtwilighted a., partly illuminated; = twilit; ˈtwilightless a., having no twilight; ˈtwilighty a., resembling twilight.
1819Keats Song of Four Fairies in R. M. Milnes Life, Lett. & Lit. Remains J. Keats (1848) II. 275 And the beams of still Vesper..Are shed thro' the rain..And *twilight your floating bowers. 1866Howells Venet. Life 149 Cavernous recesses..twilighted by twinkling altar-lamps. 1880P. Greg Errant I. xvi. 245 A room..lighted or rather twilighted by a window looking out on a back court.
1865Alex. Smith Summ. Skye I. 314 A *twilighted shepherd at watch. 1868Mrs. Whitney P. Strong xvi, Warm twilighted evenings. 1886F. Caddy Footsteps Jeanne D'Arc 226 Centuries, which..we have been until lately accustomed to consider as twilighted ages.
1892M. Dods Gosp. John II. 94 The sudden night of the Eastern *twilightless sunset had fallen.
1856Mayhew Rhine 250 The soft *twilighty tone of more ancient piles. 1894E. F. Benson Rubicon I. 69 That grey shawl is very twilighty. |