sunshine

1. 1
   warm lightnoununcountable

   Light and warmth coming directly from the sun, or the bright, warm effect they have on a place.

   After days of rain, the town finally woke to bright sunshine.

   Tomatoes ripen best with plenty of direct sunshine.

   Similarsunlight, sun

   Note

   A plain joining of sun and shine that English has used for centuries: Middle English had sunnesine around 1250, Coverdale's Bible has Sonneshyne in 1535, and Robert Herrick could still split it as Morning-Sun-shine in 1648. Old English sunsċīn looked like the same compound but meant a mirror. The word is usually uncountable, so it is bright sunshine or the sunshine, rarely a sunshine.

2. 2
   warm lightnoununcountable

   An area or spot where the rays of the sun are falling.

   Stepping out of the cool museum into the sunshine, she had to shield her eyes.

   The old men played chess on a bench in the sunshine by the fountain.

   Similarsun, sunlight

   Oppositeshade

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Someone or something that brings cheerfulness or joy.

   After a hard year, the new puppy became the sunshine of the whole household.

   On the hospital ward, the cheerful volunteer was everyone's sunshine through the gray winter.

   Similarjoy, delight

   Note

   A term of love more than a description: Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (1972) pairs it with an older idiom for a cherished person, and both name the one person who brightens a life. Because the joy always belongs to somebody, the word comes with an owner, as in my sunshine or the sunshine of my life.

4. 4
   cheerfulnessnounfigurativelyuncountable

   Friendly warmth or cheerfulness of manner or mood.

   Even on bad days, the sunshine in her laugh could lift the whole office.

   Since the breakup, all the sunshine has gone out of his letters.

   Similarwarmth, cheerfulness, brightness

   Oppositegloom

   Note

   Cheer pictured as weather: the word keeps its contrast of light against dark, which is how Bill Withers can sing in "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971) that her absence leaves him in the dark. As a quality it shines out of a smile or a laugh, as in the sunshine of her smile; when it names the person who brings the joy, it becomes someone's sunshine instead.

5. 5
   nounhumorousuncountable

   Used humorously to address someone who has just woken up or who is very sleepy.

   Morning, sunshine, you slept right through two alarms.

   'Nice of you to join us, sunshine,' the coach called as the last player stumbled onto the bus at dawn.

   Similarsleepyhead

6. 6
   friendly namenounIrelandUKuncountable

   A friendly form of address, often kept for someone younger or more junior.

   The bus driver winked at the schoolboy and said, 'On you get, sunshine.'

   'Fancy a cuppa, sunshine?' the foreman asked the new apprentice.

   Similarmate, pal

   Note

   Across Britain and Ireland it is what an older person calls a younger one in passing, kindly and without ceremony: alright, sunshine, safe to cross now. Because the mock-friendly put-down is the very same word, the warmth has to be heard in the voice; written down, the two can only be told apart by what follows.

7. 7
   mocking namenounIrelandUKuncountable

   A mock-friendly way of addressing someone treated as an inferior or a troublemaker.

   'Right, sunshine, empty your pockets,' said the officer, eyeing the boy with the spray paint.

   Listen, sunshine, I've been running this pub since before you were born, so don't tell me how to pour a pint.

   Similarsonny, pal, mate

   Note

   Here the cheerful word is used to cut someone down to size, usually just before an order or an accusation: OK, sunshine, listen up and listen good. It belongs to people with some authority over the listener, and its sting lies in sounding pleasant while treating a grown troublemaker like a child.

8. 8
   public accessadjectiveUS

   Open to the public and allowing public access, especially to meetings or activities once held behind closed doors.

   Under the state's sunshine law, two board members may not discuss public business over a private lunch.

   Critics argued that the agency's closed hearings violated the spirit of the new sunshine provisions.

   Note

   Open-government rules, chiefly in the US, wear this adjective in front of the noun: because of the sunshine law, we could go to the planning meeting. The image is the sun's light let into rooms where business was once done behind closed doors. It has no comparative, since a meeting either falls under such a rule or does not.

9. 9
   LSD pillnounslanguncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Short for orange sunshine.

   Dealers at the festival were selling sunshine, small orange tablets of LSD made in a California lab.

   Narcotics officers seized several thousand tabs of sunshine in a raid on a San Francisco apartment.

   Note

   The name of orange LSD tablets made in California in the late 1960s loses its color here, and what remains looks entirely innocent: out of context it reads as the sun's light. It is uncommon slang and stays uncountable like the full phrase, so it is tabs of sunshine, not sunshines, and orange sunshine is the clearer choice whenever there is doubt.

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