Night

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Night \Night\ (n[imac]t), n. [OE. night, niht, AS. neaht, niht;
     akin to D. nacht, OS. & OHG. naht, G. nacht, Icel. n[=o]tt,
     Sw. natt, Dan. nat, Goth. nahts, Lith. naktis, Russ. noche,
     W. nos, Ir. nochd, L. nox, noctis, Gr. ny`x, nykto`s, Skr.
     nakta, nakti. [root]265. Cf. {Equinox}, {Nocturnal}.]
     1. That part of the natural day when the sun is beneath the


        horizon, or the time from sunset to sunrise; esp., the
        time between dusk and dawn, when there is no light of the
        sun, but only moonlight, starlight, or artificial light.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
              called Night.                         --Gen. i. 5.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence:
        (a) Darkness; obscurity; concealment.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night.
                                                    --Pope.
            [1913 Webster]
        (b) Intellectual and moral darkness; ignorance.
        (c) A state of affliction; adversity; as, a dreary night
            of sorrow.
        (d) The period after the close of life; death.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  She closed her eyes in everlasting night.
                                                    --Dryden.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  Do not go gentle into that good night
                  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
                                                    --Dylan
                                                    Thomas.
            [PJC]
        (e) A lifeless or unenlivened period, as when nature seems
            to sleep. "Sad winter's night". --Spenser.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Night is sometimes used, esp. with participles, in the
           formation of self-explaining compounds; as,
           night-blooming, night-born, night-warbling, etc.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Night by night}, {Night after night}, nightly; many nights.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              So help me God, as I have watched the night,
              Ay, night by night, in studying good for England.
                                                    --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Night bird}. (Zool.)
        (a) The moor hen ({Gallinula chloropus}).
        (b) The Manx shearwater ({Puffinus Anglorum}).
  
     {Night blindness}. (Med.) See {Hemeralopia}.
  
     {Night cart}, a cart used to remove the contents of privies
        by night.
  
     {Night churr}, (Zool.), the nightjar.
  
     {Night crow}, a bird that cries in the night.
  
     {Night dog}, a dog that hunts in the night, -- used by
        poachers.
  
     {Night fire}.
        (a) Fire burning in the night.
        (b) Ignis fatuus; Will-o'-the-wisp; Jask-with-a-lantern.
            
  
     {Night flyer} (Zool.), any creature that flies in the night,
        as some birds and insects.
  
     {night glass}, a spyglass constructed to concentrate a large
        amount of light, so as see objects distinctly at night.
        --Totten.
  
     {Night green}, iodine green.
  
     {Night hag}, a witch supposed to wander in the night.
  
     {Night hawk} (Zool.), an American bird ({Chordeiles
        Virginianus}), allied to the goatsucker. It hunts the
        insects on which it feeds toward evening, on the wing, and
        often, diving down perpendicularly, produces a loud
        whirring sound, like that of a spinning wheel. Also
        sometimes applied to the European goatsuckers. It is
        called also {bull bat}.
  
     {Night heron} (Zool.), any one of several species of herons
        of the genus {Nycticorax}, found in various parts of the
        world. The best known species is {Nycticorax griseus}, or
        {Nycticorax nycticorax}, of Europe, and the American
        variety (var. naevius). The yellow-crowned night heron
        ({Nyctanassa violacea} syn. {Nycticorax violaceus})
        inhabits the Southern States. Called also {qua-bird}, and
        {squawk}.
  
     {Night house}, a public house, or inn, which is open at
        night.
  
     {Night key}, a key for unfastening a night latch.
  
     {Night latch}, a kind of latch for a door, which is operated
        from the outside by a key.
  
     {Night monkey} (Zool.), an owl monkey.
  
     {night moth} (Zool.), any one of the noctuids.
  
     {Night parrot} (Zool.), the kakapo.
  
     {Night piece}, a painting representing some night scene, as a
        moonlight effect, or the like.
  
     {Night rail}, a loose robe, or garment, worn either as a
        nightgown, or over the dress at night, or in sickness.
        [Obs.]
  
     {Night raven} (Zool.), a bird of ill omen that cries in the
        night; esp., the bittern.
  
     {Night rule}.
        (a) A tumult, or frolic, in the night; -- as if a
            corruption, of night revel. [Obs.]
        (b) Such conduct as generally rules, or prevails, at
            night.
  
                  What night rule now about this haunted grove?
                                                    --Shak.
  
     {Night sight}. (Med.) See {Nyctolopia}.
  
     {Night snap}, a night thief. [Cant] --Beau. & Fl.
  
     {Night soil}, human excrement; -- so called because in cities
        it is collected by night and carried away for manure.
  
     {Night spell}, a charm against accidents at night.
  
     {Night swallow} (Zool.), the nightjar.
  
     {Night walk}, a walk in the evening or night.
  
     {Night walker}.
        (a) One who walks in his sleep; a somnambulist; a
            noctambulist.
        (b) One who roves about in the night for evil purposes;
            specifically, a prostitute who walks the streets.
  
     {Night walking}.
        (a) Walking in one's sleep; sleep walking; somnambulism;
            noctambulism.
        (b) Walking the streets at night with evil designs.
  
     {Night warbler} (Zool.), the sedge warbler ({Acrocephalus
        phragmitis}); -- called also {night singer}. [Prov. Eng.]
        
  
     {Night watch}.
        (a) A period in the night, as distinguished by the change
            of watch.
        (b) A watch, or guard, to aford protection in the night.
            
  
     {Night watcher}, one who watches in the night; especially,
        one who watches with evil designs.
  
     {Night witch}. Same as {Night hag}, above.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  night
       n 1: the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark
            outside [syn: {nighttime}, {dark}] [ant: {day}]
       2: the time between sunset and midnight; "he watched television
          every night"
       3: the period spent sleeping; "I had a restless night"
       4: the dark part of the diurnal cycle considered a time unit;
          "three nights later he collapsed"
       5: darkness; "it vanished into the night"
       6: a shortening of nightfall; "they worked from morning to
          night"
       7: a period of ignorance or backwardness or gloom
       8: Roman goddess of night; daughter of Erebus; counterpart of
          Greek Nyx [syn: {Nox}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  67 Moby Thesaurus words for "night":
     Egyptian darkness, Erebus, all the time, all-night, blackness,
     ceaselessly, charcoal, coal, continually, continuously, crow, dark,
     dark of night, darkness, darkness visible, dead of night, dusk,
     ebon, ebony, endlessly, evening, evensong, eventide, gloaming,
     incessantly, ink, intense darkness, jet, lightlessness, midnight,
     moonlessness, night and day, night-fallen, nightfall, nightlong,
     nightly, nighttide, nighttime, nocturnal, obscure,
     obscure darkness, obscurity, pitch, pitch-darkness,
     pitchy darkness, raven, round-the-clock, sable night, sloe, smoke,
     smut, soot, starlessness, sundown, sunlessness, sunset,
     swarthiness, tar, tenebrosity, tenebrousness, the palpable obscure,
     total darkness, twilight, unceasingly, unendingly, velvet darkness,
     vespers