evening
1
5.3
- noun
- /ˈiːv.nɪŋ/
- Literature
- Elisabeth Jordens assumed, on the evening of her 72nd birthday, that death was no longer far away.
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Watch on YouTubeWe have lived through the world of a preceding evening.
- We have lived through the world of a preceding evening.
Examples
-
In his memoirs of 1874, he wrote that his grandchildren made the evening of his life pleasant and cheerful.
Academic text (1995) -
During the final evening of the summer festival, the community gathered to celebrate their achievements.
-
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
-
I decided that evening to chart my own course.
-
You gentlemen have a good evening.
-
But he was wearing good clothes, and this evening was full of civic responsibilities.
Fiction book (1996) -
I thought perhaps it was my naivete that was making the evening seem so remarkable.
Academic text (2011) -
The board has agreed to convene on a special session... at Lincoln High tomorrow evening.
-
The loner was glad of this sympathy and died toward evening without fear.
Fiction book (1998) -
As the evening drew to a close, she reflected on all the lessons learned throughout the year.
Synonyms
20
5.8
A late time when something that was strong loses power
1
9.9
The time in the evening when the sky gets dark
Antonyms
Compounds
- Formal
3
8.7
A daily evening service in the Church of England for prayers and readings
1
9.7
A North American bird with a thick cone-shaped bill and bright yellow, black and white feathers
- Specialized
1
6.8
A group of flowering plants that includes the evening primrose
- Specialized
A plant with yellow flowers that open in the evening and attract moths
- Specialized
A blue-green plant with sticky stems and white flowers that open in the evening
A poisonous woody evergreen vine with sweet-smelling yellow flowers shaped like funnels in the southeastern United States
How Late
Surface Forms
Morphology
evening = even (semi-transparent) = even + ing
The word structure is transparent, but this sense is a metaphorical extension ('the evening of my life') so the meaning requires inferencing beyond the literal time-of-day sense.
Etymology
Evening comes from the old English word æfen, meaning 'end of the day'. That's why we use evening to talk about the final or closing stage of something — the late time before it ends.