Sunshine Meaning
/ˈsʌnʃaɪn/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe direct rays, light or warmth of the sun.
nounA location on which the sun's rays fall.
Sentence Examples
The room was bathed in sunshine.
The sunshine penetrated the thick leaves of the trees.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After a week of rain, the children were happy to play in the warm ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
After a week of heavy rain, everyone was happy to see the bright ____ and feel its warmth on their skin today.
Word Origin & History
In the Coverdale Bible in 1535, in Genesis and Exodus about 1250 as Middle English sunnesine; synchronically sun + shine. Compare isolated Old English sunsċīn (“mirror”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Oft tymes a thinge doth floꝛiſh, and men thynke that it maye abyde the Sonneſhyne: it ſhuteth foꝛth the bꝛaunches in his garden, it taketh many rotes, in ſo moch that it is like an houſe off ſtones."
— 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Job viij:[16–17], folio iij, verso, column 1:
"And all the ſhrubs, vvith ſparkling ſpangles, ſhevv / Like Morning-Sun-ſhine tinsilling the devv."
— 1648, Robert Herrick, “The Apparition of His Mistresse Calling Him to Elizium”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 240:
"Sunshine, everybody loves the sunshine / Sunshine, folks get down in the sunshine / Sunshine, folks get brown in the sunshine"
— 1976, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”, performed by Roy Ayers Ubiquity:
"If there was no sunshine / Then life on Earth would not survive / Just like I would surely die / Without your love"
— 1977, Keith Barrow, “Precious”, in Keith Barrow:
"Out again into the sunshine by the wide mouth of the Green River, as the chart named the brook whose level stream scarce moved into the lake. A streak of blue shot up it between the banks, and a shrill pipe came back as the kingfisher hastened away."
— 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
After a week of rain, the children were happy to play in the warm ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
After a week of heavy rain, everyone was happy to see the bright ____ and feel its warmth on their skin today.