TWILIGHT

dusky, twilight, twilit

(adjective) 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”

twilight

(noun) the diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon but its rays are refracted by the atmosphere of the earth

twilight

(noun) a condition of decline following successes; “in the twilight of the empire”

twilight, dusk, gloaming, gloam, nightfall, evenfall, fall, crepuscule, crepuscle

(noun) the time of day immediately following sunset; “he loved the twilight”; “they finished before the fall of night”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

twilight (countable and uncountable, plural twilights)

The soft light in the sky seen before the rising and (especially) after the setting of the sun, occasioned by the illumination of the earth’s atmosphere by the direct rays of the sun and their reflection on the earth.

The time when this light is visible; the period between daylight and darkness.

(astronomy) The time when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon.

Any faint light through which something is seen; an in-between or fading condition.

Synonyms

• (period between daylight and darkness): blue hour, gloaming; see also twilight

Hyponyms

• (period between daylight and darkness): cockcrow, first light / evenfall, eventide; see also dawn and dusk

Hypernyms

• light

Hyponyms

• astronomical twilight

• civil twilight

• nautical twilight

Coordinate terms

• dawn (end of ~ in the morning)

• dusk (end of ~ in the evening)

• evening

• golden hour

• nightfall

• sundown

Adjective

twilight (not comparable)

Pertaining to or resembling twilight; faintly illuminated; obscure.

Verb

twilight (third-person singular simple present twilights, present participle twilighting, simple past and past participle twilighted or twilit)

(transitive, poetic) To illuminate faintly.

Source: Wiktionary

Twi"light`, n. Etym: [OE. twilight, AS. twi- (see Twice) + leóht 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 18º 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.

Twi"light`, a.

1. Seen or done by twilight. Milton.

2. Imperfectly illuminated; shaded; obscure. O'er the twilight groves and dusky caves. Pope.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition