twilight Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the time of day immediately following sunset
    crepuscle; dusk; fall; gloaming; gloam; evenfall; nightfall; crepuscule.
    • he loved the twilight
    • they finished before the fall of night
  2. noun the diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon but its rays are refracted by the atmosphere of the earth
  3. noun a condition of decline following successes
    • in the twilight of the empire
  4. adjective satellite lighted by or as if by twilight
    dusky; twilit.
    • The dusky night rides down the sky/And ushers in the morn"-Henry Fielding
    • the twilight glow of the sky
    • a boat on a twilit river

WordNet

Twi"light` noun
Etymology
OE. twilight, AS. twi- (see Twice) + leóht light; hence the sense of doubtful or half light; cf. LG. twelecht, G. zwielicht. See Light.
Definitions
  1. The light perceived before the rising, and after the setting, of the sun, or when the sun is less than 18° below the horizon, occasioned by the illumination of the earth's atmosphere by the direct rays of the sun and their reflection on the earth.
  2. faint light; a dubious or uncertain medium through which anything is viewed.
    As when the sun . . . from behind the moon, In dim eclipse. disastrous twilight sheds. Milton.
    The twilight of probability. Locke.
Twi"light` adjective
Definitions
  1. Seen or done by twilight. Milton.
  2. Imperfectly illuminated; shaded; obscure.
    O'er the twilight groves and dusky caves. Pope.

Webster 1913