# sunshine

Pronunciation: say "SUN-shyn" /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/

## Noun

1. Light and warmth coming directly from the sun, or the bright, warm effect they have on a place.
   - Simple: The light and heat that come straight from the sun.
   - _After days of rain, the town finally woke to bright sunshine._
   - _Tomatoes ripen best with plenty of direct sunshine._
2. An area or spot where the rays of the sun are falling.
   - Simple: A place that the sun is shining on.
   - _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._
3. Someone or something that brings cheerfulness or joy.
   - Simple: A person or thing that makes you feel happy.
   - _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._
4. Friendly warmth or cheerfulness of manner or mood.
   - Simple: A happy, friendly feeling or way of acting.
   - _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._
5. Used humorously to address someone who has just woken up or who is very sleepy.
   - Simple: A funny name for someone who just woke up or 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._
6. A friendly form of address, often kept for someone younger or more junior. *(Ireland, UK)*
   - Simple: A friendly name you use when talking to someone, often someone younger.
   - _The bus driver winked at the schoolboy and said, 'On you get, sunshine.'_
   - _'Fancy a cuppa, sunshine?' the foreman asked the new apprentice._
7. A mock-friendly way of addressing someone treated as an inferior or a troublemaker. *(Ireland, UK)*
   - Simple: A name that sounds friendly but is said coldly to someone causing trouble or seen as less important.
   - _'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._
9. Short for orange sunshine. *(slang)* — Ellipsis of orange sunshine.
   - Simple: Short for orange sunshine. A slang name for orange LSD pills from the late 1960s.
   - _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._

## Adjective

8. Open to the public and allowing public access, especially to meetings or activities once held behind closed doors. *(US)*
   - Simple: Open for the public to attend or see, especially meetings that used to be private.
   - _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._

## Origin

Found around 1250 as Middle English sunnesine in Genesis and Exodus, and in the Coverdale Bible in 1535; it can be analysed as sun + shine. Compare the isolated Old English sunsċīn ("mirror").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sunshine (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).