suns

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of sun.

   Several suns blazed across the alien horizon in the novel.

   Ancient myths sometimes spoke of multiple suns rising together.

   Note

   Besides other stars, the plural can measure time. Because sun can mean a year or a day, suns can count either one, as in a journey of many suns, and only context tells which is meant. The literary use for sunrise or sunset is uncountable, so suns seldom means dawns or dusks.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of sun.

   The lizard suns itself on a flat rock each morning.

   He suns the damp blankets on the line until they dry.

   Note

   The verb behind this form works with or without an object. A gardener suns the seedlings, and a cat simply suns on the step. A reflexive object, as in suns itself, joins the two patterns: the subject both does the exposing and receives it. One specialist use comes from the Bates method of eye training, where a person suns by exposing the eyes to sunlight. That use never takes an object.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2