twilightn.
/ˈtwʌɪlʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈtwaɪˌlaɪt/ 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.
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c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 505/1 Twylyghte, be-twyx þe day and þe nyghte, or nyghte and þe day, hesperus.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. vi. f. 32 At the beginnynge of the euenyng twilight..in the morninge twylight.
a1600 R. Hooker Two Serm. (1614) 54 He must haue darknes for a vision, hee must stumble at noone daies, as at the twi-light.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary 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.
1661 R. Boyle Some Consider. Style of Script. (1675) 99 Faith and the Twilight seeming to agree in this Property, that a mixture of Darkness is requisite to both.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 55 There is little or no Twilight, as there is nearer the Poles.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) 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.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & 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 n. see quot. 1883.
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the world > time > day and night > day or daytime > evening > [noun] > twilight, dusk, or nightfall
nighteOE
evengloamOE
eveningOE
gloamingc1000
darknessa1382
twilighting1387
crepusculum1398
crepusculec1400
darkc1400
twilight1412
sky1515
twinlightc1532
day-going?1552
cockshut1592
shutting1598
blind man's holiday1599
candle-lighting1605
gropsing1606
nightfall1612
dusk1622
torchlighta1656
candlelight1663
crepuscle1665
shut1667
mock-shade1669
close1696
duskish1696
glooma1699
setting1699
dimmit1746
to-fall of the day or night1748
darklins1767
even-close1781
mirkning1790
gloaming-shot1793
darkening1814
bat-flying time1818
gloama1821
between-light1821
settle1822
dayfall1823
evenfall1825
onfall1825
owl-hoot1832
glooming1842
darkfall1884
smokefall1936
dusk-light1937
the world > matter > light > naturally occurring light > [noun] > sunlight or sunshine > twilight > glow of sunset or evening twilight
gloamingc1000
twilight1412
setting sun1560
aftershine1834
afterglow1848
sundown1850
afterlight1923
1412–20 J. Lydgate tr. Hist. Troy i. 2733 In þe twyliȝt whan þe day gan fade.
1517 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure (new ed.) ii. 14 In the fayre twylight, I sate me downe for to rest me all nyght.
1588 A. King tr. P. Canisius Cathechisme or Schort Instr. i vij Ye quantitie of ye day brake and twa licht (for ye ane is æquall to ye vther) of euerie day.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 598 Now came still Eevning on, and Twilight gray Had in her sober Liverie all things clad. View more context for this quotation
1700 J. Dryden Chaucer's Cock & Fox in Fables 231 When the Sun was down, They just arriv'd by twilight at a Town.
1793–6 S. T. Coleridge Lines Autumnal Evening 63 When Twilight stole across the fading vale.
1836 W. Irving Astoria III. xlviii. 99 A chasm that looked dark and frightful in the gathering twilight.
1883 Chambers's 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.
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the world > matter > light > naturally occurring light > [noun] > sunlight or sunshine > light of dawn
sunrisingc1275
sun arisingc1350
sunrise1440
twilightc1440
sunbreak1822
gloaming1873
the world > matter > light > naturally occurring light > [noun] > sunlight or sunshine > twilight
evengloamOE
twilighting1387
crepusculum1398
crepusculec1400
twilightc1440
twinlightc1532
grisping1580
grey1592
owl-light1599
gropsing1606
twatter-light1606
twitterlight1608
dusk1622
grasp1650
torchlighta1656
crepuscle1665
mock-shade1669
dimps1693
duskish1696
dimmit1746
darklins1767
twilight glow1819
gloama1821
owlet light1821
sandhya1876
dusk-light1937
c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 505/1 Twye lyghte, be-fore the day, diluculum.
1609 S. Daniel Civile Wares (rev. ed.) viii. xiv. 207 Vpon the twi-light of that day..ere they had full light.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 240 By twilight of the morning we set sayle from Joppa.
1709 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels IV. 349 The Law and the Prophets, like the Glimmerings of the Twi-light, dawned first.
1744 J. Thomson Summer in Seasons (new ed.) 81 At once the bright-effulgent Sun, Rising direct, swift chases from the Sky The short-liv'd Twilight.
1845 R. Browning How they brought Good News in Bells & Pomegranates No. VII: Dramatic Romances & Lyrics iii. 3 'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear.
1863 ‘G. Eliot’ Romola I. ii. 41 [She] was weary after her labour in the morning twilight.
2. transferred. A dim light resembling twilight; partial illumination.
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the world > matter > light > intensity of light > [noun] > half-light
half-light1625
twilight1667
underlight1876
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 597 As when the Sun..In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds. View more context for this quotation
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 8. ⁋6 A Sable Cloud over-shadowed the whole Land... A Twilight began by Degrees to enlighten the Hemisphere.
1768 L. Sterne Sentimental Journey II. 30 I..look'd through the twilight of his grated door.
1820 J. Keats Eve of St. Agnes in Lamia & Other Poems 97 The faded moon Made a dim, silver twilight.
1858 N. Hawthorne French & Ital. Note-bks. I. 264 The church..had a grand effect in its tinted twilight.
1872 W. Black Strange Adventures Phaeton xxx The soft green twilight of an avenue of trees.
3. figurative.
a. An intermediate condition or period; a condition before or after full development. twilight of the gods [translation of Icelandic ragna rökkr, altered from the original ragna rök, the history or judgement of the gods] , in Scandinavian Mythology the destruction of the gods and of the world in conflict with the powers of evil; also transferred. Cf. Götterdämmerung n., Ragnarök n.
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the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [noun] > state or condition
ebbc1400
decayc1460
witheredness1535
decadencec1550
autumn1590
fall1590
dotage1606
twilight1609
pejority1615
decadency1632
atrophy1653
effeteness1862
wallow1934
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [noun] > ending of existence > in Norse mythology
Ragnarök1684
twilight of the gods1768
the world > the supernatural > deity > other deities > [noun] > northern > twilight of the gods
twilight of the gods1768
1609 W. Shakespeare Sonnets lxxiii. sig. E4 In me thou seest the twi-light of such day, As after Sun-set fadeth in the West. View more context for this quotation
1679 C. Ness Distinct Disc. Antichrist 144 As if the twilight of the church in her minority and nonage..exceeded the noon-day of the gospel-church.
1682 J. Dryden Religio Laici Pref. sig. a3 The Twilight of Revelation, after the Sun of it was set in the Race of Noah.
1768 T. Gray Descent of Odin in Poems 94 (note) Lok is the evil Being, who continues in chains till the Twilight of the Gods approaches.
1821 Ld. Byron Marino Faliero (2nd issue) i. ii. 21 At my hour Of twilight little light of life remains.
1821 W. Scott Kenilworth I. xii. 293 He is ever in a sort of twilight, that is neither sleeping nor waking.
1877 W. Sparrow 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.
1888 R. Garnett (title) The twilight of the gods and other tales.
1944 Sun (Baltimore) 22 July 2/1 The German nation is split wide open... The twilight of the gods has begun.
1979 A. R. Peacocke Creation & World of Sci. 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.
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the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > imperfect perception > [noun]
thesterc897
blindness971
obscurationa1550
twilight1610
ablepsy1616
obcaecationa1631
mind-blindness1649
blear-eyedness1653
short-sightedness1670
blearedness1678
crassitude1679
myopia1801
purblindness1834
bat-mindedness1869
myopism1880
short sighta1888
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. ii. 89 I am out of all hope in so great darknesse to discover any twy-light of the truth.
1648 R. Boyle Seraphic Love (1700) 167 The dim Twilight of Human Intellects in this Life.
1722 W. Wollaston Relig. of Nature iii. 54 Thus blind ignorance was succeeded by a twilight of ‘Sense’.
1838 W. H. Prescott Hist. Reign Ferdinand & Isabella III. ii. xiv. 135 A shadowy twilight of romance enveloped every object.
1869 H. F. Tozer Res. Highlands of Turkey II. 307 The minor deities..live in a dim twilight of popular belief.
4.
a. Of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight; seen or done in the twilight. twilight arc (also twilight arch), 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 Meteorology, 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.
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the world > matter > light > naturally occurring light > [adjective] > of or relating to twilight
crepusculinec1550
twilight1645
crepuscular1755
greying1796
crepusculous1822
dimps1891
the world > matter > light > naturally occurring light > [noun] > sunlight or sunshine > twilight
evengloamOE
twilighting1387
crepusculum1398
crepusculec1400
twilightc1440
twinlightc1532
grisping1580
grey1592
owl-light1599
gropsing1606
twatter-light1606
twitterlight1608
dusk1622
grasp1650
torchlighta1656
crepuscle1665
mock-shade1669
dimps1693
duskish1696
dimmit1746
darklins1767
twilight glow1819
gloama1821
owlet light1821
sandhya1876
dusk-light1937
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > types of vision > [noun] > scotopia
dark adaptation1897
scotopia1915
twilight vision1921
1645 J. Milton Arcades in Poems 56 Nymphs and Shepherds..Trip no more in twilight ranks.
1757 T. Gray Ode I ii. ii, in Odes 8 The Muse has broke the twilight-gloom.
1764 W. Falconer Shipwreck (new ed.) i. 34 Now Morn..advanc'd..Whitening with orient beam the twilight sky.
1794 A. Radcliffe Myst. of Udolpho III. ix. 286 She watched twilight shade, and darkness veil the scene.
1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. lix. 90 When the lingering twilight hour was past.
1819 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto II clxxxviii. 213 The twilight glow, which momently grew less.
1837 E. Bulwer-Lytton Ernest Maltravers I. i. viii. 82 That twilight shower had given a racy and vigorous sweetness to the air.
1855 A. Bain Senses & Intellect ii. ii. 460 There is a point of twilight dimness when objects begin to be doubtful.
1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. xv. 169 It is either all day here, or all night, or a twilight mixture of both.
1921 R. S. Woodworth Psychol. (1922) x. 226 Dim-light vision, or twilight vision as it is sometimes called, is rod vision and not cone vision.
1924 J. P. C. Southall tr. W. Nagel in H. von Helmholtz's Treat. Physiol. Optics II. 345 The so-called Dämmerungssehen (or twilight vision, scotopia), when the eye is dark-adapted and the light stimulus is weak.
1950 Sci. News 15 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.
1955 Sci. 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.
1972 Sci. Amer. 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.
1980 F. 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. figurative. Having an intermediate character.
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a1732 T. Boston Memoirs (1776) vii. 139 The two days before I had a twilight frame; it being neither day nor night with me.
1825 C. Waterton Wanderings in 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 figurative of early times.
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the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > darkness or gloom > [adjective] > dim, dark, or obscure
obscurea1425
opaque?1440
caliginousc1550
half-dark1576
murksome1590
opacousa1627
twilight1645
shadowy1840
twilighty1856
twilighted1865
twilit1869
1645 J. Milton On Christ's Nativity: Hymn xx, in Poems 10 The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 42 Arched walks of twilight groves, And shadows brown..Of Pine.
1810 W. Scott Lady of Lake vi. 289 In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark.
1863 N. Hawthorne Our Old Home I. 101 Warwick,..founded by King Cymbeline in the twilight ages.
1873 W. Black Princess of Thule viii. 135 Their shouts occasionally called up from some dim twilight recess—far in among the perilous rocks.
d. figurative. Of the nature of or pertaining to imperfect mental light.
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the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > imperfect perception > [adjective]
thestera900
thestria900
blindc1000
blindfoldc1450
blinkard?1528
purblind1533
blinded1535
blear-eyed1561
obcaecate1568
unilluminated1579
fonda1592
blear-witted1600
short-sighted1622
baby-blind1627
obcaecated1641
misty-brained1649
twilighta1677
blindfolded1730
short-sighted1736
unpliable1769
misty1820
myopical1830
visionless1856
myopic1891
blinkered1897
a1677 I. Barrow Wks. (1686) III. 531 Philosophy may yield some twilight glimmerings thereof.
1774 J. W. Fletcher Disc. App., in First Pt. Equal Check 91 Our short-sightedness and twilight knowledge do not alter the nature of things.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian v, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. III. 125 A doubtful, uncertain, and twilight sort of rationality.
Compounds
C1. In combination with participle or adjective.
twilight-enfolded adj.
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1891 C. T. C. James Romantic Rigmarole 88 Looking out at the soft twilight-enfolded square.
twilight-hidden adj.
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a1882 D. G. Rossetti House of Life iv Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies.
twilight-like adj.
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the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > worse > [adjective] > declining or deteriorating
downwardc1390
downhill1565
twilight-like1848
1848 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 3) 202 A state Of twilight-like existence.
twilight-loving adj.
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1747 T. Warton Pleasures of Melancholy 21 The twilight-loving bat.
twilight-seeming adj.
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1821 W. Scott Kenilworth I. vi. 122 Two silver lamps..diffused a..twilight-seeming shimmer.
twilight-tinctured adj.
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1777 T. Warton Ode Hamlet 5 Morning's twilight-tinctur'd beam.
C2. Special combinations.
twilight area n. = twilight zone n. (a).
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > decrepit or unsightly
cardboard city1876
twilight zone1909
blight1938
grey area1959
twilight area1960
1960 Daily 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.
a1974 R. 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.
twilight home n. (a) a home (see home n.1 7) for old people or animals; (b) = twilight house n.
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the world > health and disease > healing > veterinary medicine and surgery > [noun] > animal hospital > place for old or sick animals
pinjrapol1808
twilight home1934
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > animal enclosure or house general > [noun] > home for old animals
twilight home1934
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > institutional homes > [noun] > for the old
sunset home1897
eventide home1910
twilight home1934
assisted living1966
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > house in specific situation
townhouse1571
garden house1598
corner-house1693
wharf-house1698
notch house1825
suburban1856
twilight home1934
twilight house1971
townhome1976
1934 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. 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.
1968 Guardian 5 Apr. 1/6 A plan to modernise Britain's four million twilight homes has been agreed by the Cabinet.
1978 I. Murdoch Sea 493 [I] arranged for her mother to be packed off to a comfortable and expensive ‘twilight home’.
twilight house n. a house in a twilight zone (see twilight zone n. (a)).
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > house in specific situation
townhouse1571
garden house1598
corner-house1693
wharf-house1698
notch house1825
suburban1856
twilight home1934
twilight house1971
townhome1976
1971 New Society 1 July 20/2 There were 600,000 ‘slums’ and about two million ‘twilight’ houses.
twilight housing n.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > [noun] > collectively > type of
model dwellings1851
model1887
tenantry1905
row housing1920
social housing1928
open housing1958
tobacco housing1960
twilight housing1971
co-housing1988
1971 New Society 1 July 20/2 A current comparison of slum and twilight housing.
1971 Mod. Law Rev. 31 vi. 698 He has sections on..houses in disrepair, on planning blight and on twilight housing areas.
twilight night n. Baseball = twi-night n.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > [noun] > game > match
twin-bill1939
twi-night double-header1939
twilight night1949
twi-nighter1953
1949 P. 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.
1953 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Oct. ( b ed.) 21/2 There can be none of those frisky twilight-night double headers.
twilight shift n. a shift worked between the day shift and the night shift.
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society > occupation and work > work > times or periods of work > [noun] > spell of work or duty > other types of shift
day shift1842
dayside1899
graveyard shift1907
multiple shift1921
twilight shift1970
late1975
1970 ‘C. Aird’ Late Phoenix x. 115 He didn't come home last night after the twilight shift at his factory.
1977 Wandsworth 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.
twilight sleep n. [translating German dämmerschlaf (C. J. Gauss, c1905)] a state of amnesia and partial analgesia induced by the administration of morphine and scopolamine (hyoscine), esp. to lessen the pains of childbirth.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > anaesthetization, pain-killing, etc. > [noun] > analgesia > methods used in childbirth
twilight sleep1912
psychoprophylaxy1958
psychoprophylaxis1960
1912 F. Hewitt Anæsthetics & Admin. (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.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. viii. [Lestrygonians] 154 Twilightsleep idea: queen Victoria was given that.
1971 D. 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.
1981 J. Gardner Licence Renewed xiv. 161 A nice mix—Scopolamine with morphine: twilight sleep, like having a baby.
twilight world n. (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.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > nightlife > [noun]
twilight world1887
night out1890
nightlife1913
nightclubbing1925
night scene1992
the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > darkness or gloom > [noun] > place > region
twilight world1887
twilight zone1909
shadowland1923
dark side1975
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > insecure knowledge, uncertainty > [noun] > unclear condition > world characterized by
twilight world1887
society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > [noun] > crime > a criminal or law-breaker > world of criminals
twilight world1887
underworld1900
milieu1972
1887 C. Bowen tr. Virgil Æneid iv, in tr. Virgil in Eng. Verse 186 Down to the twilight world and the gloom where the buried rest.
1954 A. Koestler Invisible Writing xxvi. 281 I mention this episode as one example of the ambiguities of the twilight world in which we lived.
1963 Times 8 May 6/7 But in this unhappy twilight world in which we live in a state of truce—neither peace nor war.
1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 117 Twilight world, the world of all-night parties.
1977 D. 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.
twilight zone n. (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 4b); (c) occasionally, a dimly illuminated region.
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the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > [noun] > that which is interjacent
meana1400
moyen1483
umpire1605
intermedium1611
intermediate1650
middle1665
between-lier1674
borderland1821
border-ground1871
border-world1878
grey zone1900
twilight zone1909
grey area1935
the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > darkness or gloom > [noun] > place > region
twilight world1887
twilight zone1909
shadowland1923
dark side1975
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > decrepit or unsightly
cardboard city1876
twilight zone1909
blight1938
grey area1959
twilight area1960
1909 Arena Mar. 273/2 Such organization will leave no ‘twilight zone’, no ‘no man's land’, for railway corporation dodgers.
1918 Policeman's Monthly June 30/1 There still remain twilight zones in most centers of population.
1920 J. 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.
1938 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 42 492 The twilight zone extends to about 20° either side of the equi~signal zone centre.
1960 Daily Tel. 20 June 17/6 There are many towns with ‘twilight zones’ of shabby and out~dated houses.
1969 Times 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.
1981 Washington 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.
Derivatives
ˈtwilight v. (transitive) to light imperfectly or dimly.
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the world > matter > light > naturally occurring light > emit beams (of a luminary) [verb (transitive)] > light imperfectly or dimly
twilight1819
1819 J. Keats 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.
1866 W. D. Howells Venetian Life 149 Cavernous recesses..twilighted by twinkling altar-lamps.
1880 P. Greg Errant I. xvi. 245 A room..lighted or rather twilighted by a window looking out on a back court.
ˈtwilighted adj. partly illuminated; = twilit adj.
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the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > darkness or gloom > [adjective] > dim, dark, or obscure
obscurea1425
opaque?1440
caliginousc1550
half-dark1576
murksome1590
opacousa1627
twilight1645
shadowy1840
twilighty1856
twilighted1865
twilit1869
1865 A. Smith Summer in Skye I. 314 A twilighted shepherd at watch.
1868 A. D. Whitney Patience Strong's Outings xvi Warm twilighted evenings.
1886 F. Caddy Footsteps Jeanne D'Arc 226 Centuries, which..we have been until lately accustomed to consider as twilighted ages.
ˈtwilightless adj. having no twilight.
ΚΠ
1892 M. Dods Gospel St. John II. 94 The sudden night of the Eastern twilightless sunset had fallen.
ˈtwilighty adj. resembling twilight.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > darkness or absence of light > darkness or gloom > [adjective] > dim, dark, or obscure
obscurea1425
opaque?1440
caliginousc1550
half-dark1576
murksome1590
opacousa1627
twilight1645
shadowy1840
twilighty1856
twilighted1865
twilit1869
1856 H. Mayhew Upper Rhine 250 The soft twilighty tone of more ancient piles.
1894 E. F. Benson Rubicon I. 69 That grey shawl is very twilighty.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1916; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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