dusk to dawn
1
3.5
- idiom
:
de anochecer a amanecer
- The outdoor festival will be open from dusk to dawn, allowing visitors to enjoy activities throughout the night.
- dusk to dawn curfew
Examples
-
It was mainly a night fishery from dusk to dawn.
Academic text (1990) -
Outside, the red sunset faded on the side of the barn, and the dusk-to-dawn light flickered and flared.
Fiction book (1996) -
They operated from dusk to dawn, and not during the day.
-
In addition, military authorities in Ovamboland imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in an attempt to curtail the movement of insurgents in the population.
Academic text (1993) -
The city implemented a dusk to dawn lighting scheme to improve safety in public spaces during nighttime.
-
The new park rules state that the facility is available for use from dusk to dawn every day.
Antonyms
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'lasting from evening until morning' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'dusk' (after sunset) + 'to' (indicating a span) + 'dawn' (before sunrise). The 'X to Y' time-range construction is cross-linguistically common and follows standard compositional patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will readily infer the overall meaning.
Etymology
Dusk to dawn shows a simple picture: dusk is when the sun goes down and dawn is when it comes up. So when something is called 'dusk to dawn', it means it lasts 'from evening' to 'morning', or simply 'throughout the night'.