Adjacent Words

Twilight definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TWI'LIGHT, n.
1. The faint light which is reflected upon the earth after sunset and before sunrise; crepuscular light. In latitudes remote from the equator, the twilight is of much longer duration than at and near the equator.
2. Dubious or uncertain view; as the twilight or probability.
TWI'LIGHT, a. Obscure; imperfectly illuminated; shaded.
O'er the twilight groves and dusky caves.
1. Seen or done by twilight.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: lighted by or as if by twilight; "The dusky night rides down the sky/And ushers in the morn"-Henry Fielding; "the twilight glow of the sky"; "a boat on a twilit river" [syn: dusky, twilight, twilit] n
1: the time of day immediately following sunset; "he loved the twilight"; "they finished before the fall of night" [syn: twilight, dusk, gloaming, gloam, nightfall, evenfall, fall, crepuscule, crepuscle]
2: the diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon but its rays are refracted by the atmosphere of the earth
3: a condition of decline following successes; "in the twilight of the empire"

Merriam Webster's

noun Usage: often attributive Date: 15th century 1. the light from the sky between full night and sunrise or between sunset and full night produced by diffusion of sunlight through the atmosphere and its dust; also a time of twilight 2. a. an intermediate state that is not clearly defined <lived in the twilight of neutrality — Newsweek> b. a period of decline <the twilight of a great career>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the soft glowing light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, esp. in the evening. 2 the period of this. 3 a faint light. 4 a state of imperfect knowledge or understanding. 5 a period of decline or destruction. Phrases and idioms: twilight sleep Med. a state of partial narcosis, esp. to ease the pain of childbirth. twilight zone 1 an urban area that is becoming dilapidated. 2 any physical or conceptual area which is undefined or intermediate. Etymology: ME f. OE twi- two (in uncert. sense) + LIGHT(1)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Twilight Twi"light`, a. 1. Seen or done by twilight. --Milton. 2. Imperfectly illuminated; shaded; obscure. O'er the twilight groves and dusky caves. --Pope.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Twilight Twi"light`, n. [OE. twilight, AS. twi- (see Twice) + le['o]ht light; hence the sense of doubtful or half light; cf. LG. twelecht, G. zwielicht. See Light.] 1. The light perceived before the rising, and after the setting, of the sun, or when the sun is less than 18[deg] below the horizon, occasioned by the illumination of the earth's atmosphere by the direct rays of the sun and their reflection on the earth. 2. faint light; a dubious or uncertain medium through which anything is viewed. As when the sun . . . from behind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds. --Milton. The twilight of probability. --Locke.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Twilight is the time just before night when the daylight has almost gone but when it is not completely dark. = dusk 2. Twilight is the small amount of light that there is outside just after the sun has gone down. ...the deepening autumn twilight. N-UNCOUNT 3. The twilight of a particular period of time is the final stages of it, when the most important events have already happened. Now both men are in the twilight of their careers... N-SING: the N of n, N n 4. A twilight state or a twilight zone is a situation of confusion or uncertainty, which seems to exist between two different states or categories. They fell into that twilight zone between military personnel and civilian employees. ADJ: ADJ n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

twi'-lit (nesheph): The twilight of Palestine is of short duration, owing to the low latitude, there being scarcely more than an hour between sunset and complete darkness. It is a distinct boundary between daytime and the darkness. The people of Palestine still give the time of an event as so many hours before or after sunrise or sunset: "David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day" (1Sa 30:17), and "They rose up in the twilight to go" (2Ki 7:5). The word is evidenly used in the sense of darkness in "the stars of twilight" (Job 3:9) and "The adulterer waiteth for the twilight" (Job 24:15). the King James Version has "twilight" in Eze 12:6 ff, but the Revised Version (British and American) has "dark."

Alfred H. Joy

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Crepuscular light. 2. Dim light, faint light. II. a. Obscure, dim, shaded.

Moby Thesaurus

afterglow, alpenglow, aurora, bad light, brown of dusk, brownness, candlelight, candlelighting, cocklight, crepuscular, crepuscule, dark, darkening, darkish, darkishness, darkling, darksome, darksomeness, dawnlight, deadness, decay, declination, decline, dim, dim light, diminution, dimming, dimness, dimpsy, downturn, drabness, dullness, dusk, duskiness, duskingtide, duskness, dusky, ebb, end, evening, evensong, eventide, first light, flatness, foredawn, gloam, gloaming, glooming, gloomy, glow, half-light, lack of sparkle, lackluster, lifelessness, limbo, lusterlessness, mat, mat finish, morning twilight, murk, murkiness, nightfall, obscure, owllight, partial darkness, semidark, shadowy, shady, slump, somberness, sundown, sunset, sunsetty, the small hours, twilight zone, twilighty, vesper, vespertine, wane, waning, weakening