SUNDIAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sundial mean? 

• SUNDIAL (noun)
  The noun SUNDIAL has 1 sense:

1. timepiece that indicates the daylight hours by the shadow that the gnomon casts on a calibrated dial

  Familiarity information: SUNDIAL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUNDIAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Timepiece that indicates the daylight hours by the shadow that the gnomon casts on a calibrated dial

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("sundial" is a kind of...):

horologe; timekeeper; timepiece (a measuring instrument or device for keeping time)

Meronyms (parts of "sundial"):

gnomon (indicator provided by the stationary arm whose shadow indicates the time on the sundial)

 Context examples 

‘What papers? What sundial?’ he asked.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

None did come for a week, and then yesterday morning I found this paper lying on the sundial in the garden.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘Put the papers on the sundial,’ I read, peeping over his shoulder.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As we drove up to the porticoed front door, I observed in front of it, beside the tennis lawn, the black tool-house and the pedestalled sundial with which we had such strange associations.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘The sundial in the garden. There is no other,’ said I; ‘but the papers must be those that are destroyed.’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All was quiet with him, save that a long inscription had appeared that morning upon the pedestal of the sundial.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Having done this, you must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Three days later a message was left scrawled upon paper, and placed under a pebble upon the sundial.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“The postmark is London—eastern division. Within are the very words which were upon my father’s last message: ‘K. K. K.’; and then ‘Put the papers on the sundial.’”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘Some preposterous practical joke,’ said he. ‘What have I to do with sundials and papers?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)