sunny

Formssunnier, sunniest

Pluralsunnies

1. 1
   fine weatheradjective

   Of weather or a day, having plenty of sunshine.

   Tomorrow will be sunny and warm, with only a slight breeze.

   It turned out to be the sunniest day of the whole vacation.

   Similarbright, clear, fine, fair, cloudless

   Oppositecloudy, overcast, dull, gloomy

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a place, receiving a lot of sunshine.

   The vines are planted on the sunny side of the valley.

   Phoenix is far sunnier than Seattle, especially in winter.

   Similarsunlit, bright

   Oppositeshady, shaded

   Note

   A sunny place is one the sun reaches often, whatever today's weather: Spain counts as sunny even on a wet afternoon, while the weather sense describes the day itself. The fixed phrase is the sunny side, of a hill, a valley or a street, and places compare freely, so one country can be sunnier than another and nothing compared with the Sahara.

3. 3
   cheerfuladjectivefiguratively

   Cheerful in mood, manner, or outlook.

   Despite the bad news, she kept her sunny good humor all afternoon.

   The coach's sunny outlook carried the team through a losing season.

   Similarcheerful, cheery, bright, upbeat, optimistic

   Oppositegloomy, glum, sullen, morose

   Note

   Picturing cheerfulness as weather is an old habit: in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors a single "sunny look" can repair faded beauty, and Charles Dickens in Barnaby Rudge (1841) lets a gleam of sun fall on a man "as though attracted by his sunny heart". The usual partners are disposition, look, mirth and outlook, and the opposite is sunless.

4. 4
   fried eggsadverbdialectalUS

   Of eggs, fried on one side only with the yolk facing up, as in sunny side up.

   I'll take two eggs sunny and a side of bacon.

   She likes her eggs sunny, with the yolks still soft enough to dip toast in.

   Note

   Diners in some parts of the US shorten sunny side up to plain sunny when ordering fried eggs: two eggs sunny, wheat toast. Like the full phrase it follows the noun, and it never takes sunnier or sunniest, which belong to the adjective; outside the regions that use it, the full phrase is safer.

5. 5
   shiningadjective

   Relating to or coming from the sun, or resembling it; shining and radiant.

   They painted the nursery a sunny yellow that brightened the whole room.

   Her sunny curls caught the light as she turned toward the window.

   Similarbright, golden, radiant, shining

   Oppositedull, dark

   Note

   Older poetry uses it for whatever shines like the sun or comes from it: Edmund Spenser writes of "sunny beams", and in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice a lady's "sunny locks" hang on her temples "like a golden fleece". In modern use it often describes a color, so a sunny yellow is warm and bright and sunny curls are golden.

6. 6
   fishnouncountable

   A fish of the kind called a sunfish.

   My grandson reeled in his first sunny with a worm and a bobber.

   The kids caught a dozen sunnies off the dock before lunch.

   Similarsunfish

Showing meanings only. Show all 6