Definitions

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

  • noun Something, such as an awning or a billed cap, that is used or worn as a protection from the sun's rays.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Something used as a protection from the rays of the sun.
  • noun A hood or front-piece made of silk shirred upon whalebones, worn over the front of a bonnet as a protection from sun or wind. Such hoods were in fashion about 1850. Compare ugly, n.
  • noun A kind of awning projecting from the top of a shop-window.
  • noun A dark or colored glass used upon a sextant or telescope to diminish the intensity of the light in observing the sun.
  • noun A tube projecting beyond the objective of a telescope to cnt off strong light.
  • noun A shadehat

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

  • noun A small parasol.
  • noun An awning.

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

  • noun Something to keep the sun off, something to create shade from the sun.

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

  • noun a handheld collapsible source of shade
  • noun a canopy made of canvas to shelter people or things from rain or sun

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *sunschade, from Old English sunsceadu, sunnsceadu ("a veil, a sun-shade, a covering to keep off the sun"), equivalent to sun +‎ shade.

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Examples

  • But should Earth be faced with an abrupt climate crisis, a space sunshade is a technically feasible solution.

    Science Press Releases 2006

  • "Oh, you may make fun," said Anna, snapping open the frothy thing she called a sunshade, "but you don't know how I lie awake nights, shuddering lest Lena grow up a near-sighted girl with no color and serious views."

    Life at High Tide Henry Mills Alden 1877

  • To some, such as Wigley, a sunshade could be a rational strategy to buy time for the long labor of converting to a carbon-neutral energy supply.

    Gyre.org - Tracking the Next Military and Technological Revolutions 2009

  • To some, such as Wigley, a sunshade could be a rational strategy to buy time for the long labor of converting to a carbon-neutral energy supply.

    EcoEarth.Info Environment RSS Newsfeed 2008

  • Another study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, showed that reflecting incoming solar radiation (through the use of a large "sunshade") would impact the hydrological cycle, leading to a drier global climate.

    Jeremy Jacquot: Slouching towards geo-engineering? 2008

  • Quite literally, the quaint and elliptical passage runs: 'The shameless one me "sunshade" only,' which the Commentary explains as 'My husband calls me not even an umbrella which he makes for his livelihood.'

    Psalms of the Sisters Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys 1909

  • A suggested high-atmosphere "sunshade" of particles to battle global warming could reduce energy production from centralized solar power plants.

    unknown title 2009

  • Attempts to deal with global warming by putting a particulate "sunshade" into the atmosphere would have adverse effects on solar power generation, according to a US federal boffin.

    Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com 2009

  • Dan Murphy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) investigates a major inspiration for "sunshade" schemes, the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991.

    Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com 2009

  • Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, meanwhile, warned that suggestions for a high-atmosphere "sunshade" of particles to battle global warming could reduce energy production from solar power plants.

    Taipei Times 2009

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  • "n. A hood or front-piece made of silk shirred upon whalebones, worn over the front of a bonnet as a protection from sun or wind. Such hoods were in fashion about 1850. Compare ugly, n."

    -- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

    January 27, 2016