noontimen.
/ˈnuːntʌɪm/, U.S. /ˈnunˌtaɪm/ 1. = noontide n. 1. Also: (U.S.) an interval in the middle of the day; = nooning n. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > day and night > day or daytime > noon or midday > [noun]
noontideeOE
middayOE
overnoonOE
noontimeOE
noona1225
undern13..
high noon1370
undern-tide1387
meridianc1390
merionc1390
meridiec1392
midoverunderna1400
high dayc1425
noon season1461
nooninga1500
noonday1535
midnoon1580
mid-seasona1616
M1741
noon-mark1842
noon1852
sun-hot1894
OE Benedictine Office (Junius) (1957) 97 On nontiman we sculon God herian forðam on þonne timan Crist..his gast asende.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xv. 278 Antony, a dayes, aboute none tyme, Had a bridde that brouȝte hym bred.
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 563 Fra þe none tyme Till it to mydday was meten on þe morne efter.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iii. f. 140v In the noone time..you must driue them to the vallyes, and shades.
a1622 E. Jocelin Mothers Legacie (1624) 52 The noone time is most used for discourse, it being all a man can doe while he eats.
1728 Philos. Trans. 1727–8 (Royal Soc.) 35 426 The Instrument..shews the Noon-time to one or two seconds.
1780 J. Woodforde Diary 5 June (1924) I. 283 Mr. Mann's Boy..was drowned and found about Noon Time quite dead.
1834 Knickerbocker Mag. 3 283 They would sit and read for hours together from the same story book, during ‘noon time’ and ‘play time’.
1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 371/2 At noontime all Germans had assembled.
1940 Sci. Monthly 51 435/2 It is a village work-party, with a measure of last season's rice as pay and, of course, a noontime dinner in the fields.
1991 Verbatim 18 10/2 One noontime Mr. Kaplan and my father went out to lunch from my father's office on Devonshire Street.
2002 Ledger (Lakeland, Florida) (Nexis) 8 Jan. (Metro section) b1 (heading) A rain shower..brought colder temperatures with it about noontime.
2. figurative. The culminating or highest point of something (cf. noontide n. 3). Also: a decline from the highest point (cf. afternoon n. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > [noun] > state of or advanced condition > highest point
prickOE
heighta1050
full1340
higha1398
pointc1400
roofa1500
top-castle1548
ruff1549
acmea1568
tip1567
noontide1578
high tide1579
superlative1583
summity1588
spring tide1593
meridian1594
period1595
apogee1600
punctilio1601
high-water mark1602
noon1609
zenith1610
auge1611
apex1624
culmination1633
cumble1640
culmen1646
climax1647
topc1650
cumulus1659
summit1661
perigeum1670
highest1688
consummation1698
stretch1741
high point1787
perihelion1804
summary1831
comble1832
heading up1857
climacteric1870
flashpoint1878
tip-end1885
peak1902
noontime1903
Omega point1981
1903 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 13 476 It has been well said that every determinate age has its prophet, its poet and its philosopher:..its poet..comes in the noon-time of a period and voices its greatness.
1965 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Nov. 1036/3 The noon-time of the genre [sc. the musical] was over.
1986 C. Kizer Nearness of You 42 Numbly we move to the noontime of our love.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.OE