Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The event or time of the disappearance of the upper circumferential edge of the sun as it sets below the horizon.
  • noun The sky as the sun sets.
  • noun A decline or final phase.
  • noun Law The automatic expiration of a statutory provision on a previously established date, in the absence of reauthorization.
  • adjective Law Providing for an automatic expiration.
  • intransitive verb To expire on a previously established date, as a statutory provision.
  • intransitive verb To provide for the expiration of (a program or agency) by means of a sunset provision.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The descent of the upper limb of the sun below the horizon in the evening; the atmospheric phenomena accompanying the setting of the sun; the time when the sun sets; evening.
  • noun Hence Figuratively, the close or decline.
  • noun The region or quarter where the sun sets; the west. Compare sunrising, 2.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The descent of the sun below the horizon; also, the time when the sun sets; evening. Also used figuratively.
  • noun Hence, the region where the sun sets; the west.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a West Indian marine bivalve (Tellina radiata) having a smooth shell marked with radiating bands of varied colors resembling those seen at sunset or before sunrise; -- called also rising sun.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The time of day when the sun disappears below the western horizon.
  • noun The changes in color of the sky at sunset.
  • noun figuratively The final period of the life of a person or thing.
  • noun attributively Having a set termination date.
  • noun The region where the sun sets; the west.
  • verb business, politics, transitive To phase out.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective providing for termination
  • noun atmospheric phenomena accompanying the daily disappearance of the sun
  • noun the daily event of the sun sinking below the horizon
  • noun the time in the evening at which the sun begins to fall below the horizon
  • adjective of a declining industry or technology

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Adj. and v., on the model of sunshine (as in sunshine law).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sun +‎ set. In Gower's Confessio Amantis, before 1393.

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