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sun - 14 dictionary results

sun

[suhn]

,noun, verb, sunned, sun⋅ning.

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–noun

(often initial capital letter

) the star that is the central body of the solar system, around which the planets revolve and from which they receive light and heat: its mean distance from the earth is about 93 million miles (150 million km), its diameter about 864,000 miles (1.4 million km), and its mass about 330,000 times that of the earth; its period of surface rotation is about 26 days at its equator but longer at higher latitudes.

2.	the sun considered with reference to its position in the sky, its visibility, the season of the year, the time at which or the place where it is seen, etc.

3.	a self-luminous heavenly body; star.

4.	sunshine; the heat and light from the sun: to be exposed to the sun.

5.	a figure or representation of the sun, as a heraldic bearing usually surrounded with rays and marked with the features of a human face.

6.	something likened to the sun in brightness, splendor, etc.

Chiefly Literary.

a.	clime; climate.

b.	glory; splendor.

8.	sunrise or sunset: They traveled hard from sun to sun.

Archaic.

a day.

a year.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to expose to the sun's rays.

11.	to warm, dry, etc., in the sunshine.

12.	to put, bring, make, etc., by exposure to the sun.

–verb (used without object)

13.	to be exposed to the rays of the sun: to sun in the yard.

—Idioms

14.	against the sun, Nautical. counterclockwise.

15.	place in the sun, a favorable or advantageous position; prominence; recognition: The new generation of writers has achieved a place in the sun.

16.	under the sun, on earth; anywhere: the most beautiful city under the sun.

17.	with the sun, Nautical. clockwise.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME sun, sonne, OE sunne; c. G Sonne, ON sunna, Goth sunno; akin to ON sōl, Goth sauil, L sōl (see solar ), Gk h

lios (see helio- ), Welsh haul, Lith saũlė, Pol słońce

Related forms:

sunlike, adjective

Sun.

Sunday.

Also, Sund.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sun (sŭn)

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n.

often Sun A star that is the basis of the solar system and that sustains life on Earth, being the source of heat and light. It has a mean distance from Earth of about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) a diameter of approximately 1,390,000 kilometers (864,000 miles) and a mass about 330,000 times that of Earth.
A star that is the center of a planetary system.
The radiant energy, especially heat and visible light, emitted by the sun; sunshine.
A sunlike object, representation, or design.

v.   sunned, sun·ning, suns

v.   tr.
To expose to the sun's rays, as for warming, drying, or tanning.
v.   intr.
To expose oneself or itself to the sun.

[Middle English, from Old English sunne; see sāwel- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Sun

Sun\, n. (Bot.) See Sunn.

Sun

Sun\, n. [OE. sunne, sonne, AS. sunne; akin to OFries. sunne, D. zon, OS. & OHG. sunna, G. sonne, Icel. sunna, Goth. sunna; perh. fr. same root as L. sol. [root]297. Cf. Solar, South.]

1. The luminous orb, the light of which constitutes day, and its absence night; the central body round which the earth and planets revolve, by which they are held in their orbits, and from which they receive light and heat. Its mean distance from the earth is about 92,500,000 miles, and its diameter about 860,000.

Note: Its mean apparent diameter as seen from the earth is 32' 4[sec], and it revolves on its own axis once in 251/3 days. Its mean density is about one fourth of that of the earth, or 1.41, that of water being unity. Its luminous surface is called the photosphere, above which is an envelope consisting partly of hydrogen, called the chromosphere, which can be seen only through the spectroscope, or at the time of a total solar eclipse. Above the chromosphere, and sometimes extending out millions of miles, are luminous rays or streams of light which are visible only at the time of a total eclipse, forming the solar corona.

2. Any heavenly body which forms the center of a system of orbs.

3. The direct light or warmth of the sun; sunshine.

Lambs that did frisk in the sun. --Shak.

4. That which resembles the sun, as in splendor or importance; any source of light, warmth, or animation.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield. --Ps. lxxiv. 11.

I will never consent to put out the sun of sovereignity to posterity. --Eikon Basilike.

Sun and planet wheels (Mach.), an ingenious contrivance for converting reciprocating motion, as that of the working beam of a steam engine, into rotatory motion. It consists of a toothed wheel (called the sun wheel), firmly secured to the shaft it is desired to drive, and another wheel (called the planet wheel) secured to the end of a connecting rod. By the motion of the connecting rod, the planet wheel is made to circulate round the central wheel on the shaft, communicating to this latter a velocity of revolution the double of its own. --G. Francis.

Sun angel (Zo["o]l.), a South American humming bird of the genus Heliangelos, noted for its beautiful colors and the brilliant luster of the feathers of its throat.

Sun animalcute. (Zo["o]l.) See Heliozoa.

Sun bath (Med.), exposure of a patient to the sun's rays; insolation.

Sun bear (Zo["o]l.), a species of bear (Helarctos Malayanus) native of Southern Asia and Borneo. It has a small head and short neck, and fine short glossy fur, mostly black, but brownish on the nose. It is easily tamed. Called also bruang, and Malayan bear.

Sun beetle (Zo["o]l.), any small lustrous beetle of the genus Amara.

Sun bittern (Zo["o]l.), a singular South American bird (Eurypyga helias), in some respects related both to the rails and herons. It is beautifully variegated with white, brown, and black. Called also sunbird, and tiger bittern.

Sun fever (Med.), the condition of fever produced by sun stroke.

Sun gem (Zo["o]l.), a Brazilian humming bird (Heliactin cornutus). Its head is ornamented by two tufts of bright colored feathers, fiery crimson at the base and greenish yellow at the tip. Called also Horned hummer.

Sun grebe (Zo["o]l.), the finfoot.

Sun picture, a picture taken by the agency of the sun's rays; a photograph.

Sun spots (Astron.), dark spots that appear on the sun's disk, consisting commonly of a black central portion with a surrounding border of lighter shade, and usually seen only by the telescope, but sometimes by the naked eye. They are very changeable in their figure and dimensions, and vary in size from mere apparent points to spaces of 50,000 miles in diameter. The term sun spots is often used to include bright spaces (called facul[ae]) as well as dark spaces (called macul[ae]). Called also solar spots. See Illustration in Appendix.

Sun star (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of starfishes belonging to Solaster, Crossaster, and allied genera, having numerous rays.

Sun trout (Zo["o]l.), the squeteague.

Sun wheel. (Mach.) See Sun and planet wheels, above.

Under the sun, in the world; on earth. "There is no new thing under the sun." --Eccl. i. 9.

Note: Sun is often used in the formation of compound adjectives of obvious meaning; as, sun-bright, sun-dried, sun-gilt, sunlike, sun-lit, sun-scorched, and the like.

Sun

Sun\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sunned; p. pr. & vb. n. Sunning.] To expose to the sun's rays; to warm or dry in the sun; as, to sun cloth; to sun grain.

Then to sun thyself in open air. --Dryden.

Language Translation for : sun

Spanish: sol,

German: die Sonne,

Japanese: 太陽

More Translations »

sun

The star around which the Earth revolves.

Note: The sun is about 4.5 billion years old and is expected to remain in its present state for approximately another six billion years; it will eventually evolve into a white dwarf.

Sun

n. Sun Microsystems. Hackers remember that the name was originally an acronym, Stanford University Network. Sun started out around 1980 with some hardware hackers (mainly) from Stanford talking to some software hackers (mainly) from UC Berkeley; Sun's original technology concept married a clever board design based on the Motorola 68000 to BSD Unix. Sun went on to lead the worstation industry through the 1980s, and for years afterwards remained an engineering-driven company and a good place for hackers to work. Though Sun drifted away from its techie origins after 1990 and has since made some strategic moves that disappointed and annoyed many hackers (especially by maintaining proprietary control of Java and rejecting Linux), it's still considered within the family in much the same way DEC was in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Jargon File 4.2.0
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sun (n.)

O.E. sunne, from P.Gmc. *sunnon (cf. O.N., O.S., O.H.G. sunna, M.Du. sonne, Du. zon, Ger. Sonne, Goth. sunno), from PIE *s(u)wen- (cf. Avestan xueng "sun," O.Ir. fur-sunnud "lighting up"), alternate form of base *saewel- "to shine, sun" (see Sol). O.E. sunne was fem., and the fem. pronoun was used until 16c.; since then masc. has prevailed. The empire on which the sun never sets (1630) originally was the Spanish, later the British. To have one's place in the sun (1688) is from Pascal's "Pensées"; the Ger. imperial foreign policy sense (1897) is from a speech by von Bülow. The U.S. Sunbelt is first recorded 1969. Sunlight is first recorded c.1205. Sunbeam was in O.E.; sunset first recorded 1390 (sundown is from 1620); sunrise is first found 1440 (sun-up is from 1712). Sundial is from 1599. Sunspot in ref. to the solar phenomenon is from 1868. Egg served sunny side up first attested 1900. Sunroof of a car is from 1966.

sun (v.)

1519, "to set something in the sun," from sun (n.). Meaning "to expose oneself to the sun" is recorded from 1610. Sun-bathing is attested from 1600. Sun-tan (v.) is recorded from 1821; the noun is first attested 1904. Sunburn (v.) is from sunne y-brent (c.1400).

sun (sŭn) Pronunciation Key

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Often Sun. A medium-sized, main-sequence star located in a spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, orbited by all of the planets and other bodies in our solar system and supplying the heat and light that sustain life on Earth. Its diameter is approximately 1.4 million km (868,000 mi), and its mass, about 330,000 times that of Earth, comprises more than 99 percent of the matter in the solar system. It has a temperature of some 16 million degrees C (27 million degrees F) at its core, where nuclear fusion produces tremendous amounts of energy, mainly through the series of reactions known as the proton-proton chain. The energy generated in the core radiates through a radiation zone to an opaque convection zone, where it rises to the surface through convection currents of the Sun's plasma. The Sun's surface temperature (at its photosphere) is approximately 6,200 degrees C (11,200 degrees F). Turbulent surface phenomena analogous to the Earth's weather are prevalent, including magnetic storms, sunspots, and solar flares. The Sun was formed along with the rest of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago and is expected to run out of its current hydrogen fuel in another 5 billion years, at which point it will develop into a red giant and ultimately into a white dwarf. See Table at solar system. See Note at dwarf star.

Sun
Sun Microsystems

Sun

(Heb. shemesh), first mentioned along with the moon as the two great luminaries of heaven (Gen. 1:14-18). By their motions and influence they were intended to mark and divide times and seasons. The worship of the sun was one of the oldest forms of false religion (Job 31:26,27), and was common among the Egyptians and Chaldeans and other pagan nations. The Jews were warned against this form of idolatry (Deut. 4:19; 17:3; comp. 2 Kings 23:11; Jer. 19:13).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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sun

In addition to the idiom beginning with sun, also see everything but the kitchen sink (under the sun); make hay while the sun shines; nothing new under the sun; place in the sun.

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