Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

daylight

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Remove ads
See also: day-light

English

Alternative forms

  • day-light

Etymology

From Middle English daye-lighte, dey liȝht, dailiȝt, day-liht, dai-liht (also as days lyȝt, daies liht), equivalent to day +‎ light. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Deegeslucht, Daisljoacht (“daylight”), West Frisian deiljocht (“daylight”), Dutch daglicht (“daylight”), German Tageslicht (“daylight”).

Pronunciation

Noun

daylight (countable and uncountable, plural daylights)

  2. The natural light that is ambient in daytime, being mostly sunlight (both direct and indirect, on either sunny days or cloudy days).
    Hypernyms: starlight (broad sense only) < natural light < light < EMR, electromagnetic radiation < radiation < energy
    Meronym: sunbeams
    Coordinate terms: starlight (usual idiomatic sense), moonlight
    Near-synonyms: sunlight, sunshine
    In those days the entire factory was lit only by daylight and was closed at night.
  3. A light source that simulates daylight.
  4. (countable, photometry) The intensity distribution of light over the visible spectrum generated by the Sun under various conditions or by other light sources intended to simulate natural daylight.
  5. The period of time between sunrise and sunset.
    Synonyms: daytime; see also Thesaurus:daytime
    burning daylight;   wasting daylight
    We should get home while it's still daylight.
  7. Daybreak.
    Synonyms: sunlight, sunrise, dayspring, dawn; see also Thesaurus:dawn
    We had only two hours to work before daylight.
  9. Exposure to public scrutiny.
    Synonym: sunshine
    Budgeting a spy organization can't very well be done in daylight.
  10. A clear, open space.
    All small running backs instinctively run to daylight.
    He could barely see daylight through the complex clockwork.
    Finally, after weeks of work on the project, they could see daylight.
  11. (countable, machinery) The space between platens on a press or similar machinery.
    The minimum and maximum daylights on an injection molding machine determines the sizes of the items it can make.
  12. (figurative) Emotional or psychological distance between people, or disagreement.
    We completely agree. There's no daylight between us on the issue.
    • 2023 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “What Fox News Says When You’re Not Listening”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      Sometimes hosts are a little saltier when the cameras aren’t rolling, but I don’t recall ever hearing any daylight between the views they express on-air and off.
  13. (figurative) Meaningful or noticeable difference or distinction between two things, especially concepts.
    There's not much daylight between saying that the universe is God and saying that God doesn't exist.
  14. The gap between the top of a drinking-glass and the level of drink it is filled with.
    Coordinate term: heeltap

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  • (gap between glass and drink): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Verb

daylight (third-person singular simple present daylights, present participle daylighting, simple past and past participle daylighted or daylit)

  1. To expose to daylight
  2. (architecture) To provide sources of natural illumination such as skylights or windows.
  3. To allow light in, as by opening drapes.
  4. (landscaping, civil engineering) To run a drainage pipe to an opening from which its contents can drain away naturally.
  5. (intransitive) To gain exposure to the open.
    The seam of coal daylighted at a cliff by the river.
    • 1964 October, “Letters: A US lesson in high-capacity freight stock”, in Modern Railways, page 233:
      Tunnels were enlarged or daylighted and clearances generally greatly improved.

Translations

See also

Anagrams

Remove ads

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads