SUNSHINE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sunshine mean? 

• SUNSHINE (noun)
  The noun SUNSHINE has 3 senses:

1. the rays of the sun

2. moderate weather; suitable for outdoor activities

3. the quality of being cheerful and dispelling gloom

  Familiarity information: SUNSHINE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUNSHINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The rays of the sun

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

sun; sunlight; sunshine

Context example:

the shingles were weathered by the sun and wind

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

light; visible light; visible radiation ((physics) electromagnetic radiation that can produce a visual sensation)

Meronyms (parts of "sunshine"):

sunbeam; sunray (a ray of sunlight)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sunshine"):

sunburst (a sudden emergence of the sun from behind clouds)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Moderate weather; suitable for outdoor activities

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

fair weather; sunshine; temperateness

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

atmospheric condition; conditions; weather; weather condition (the atmospheric conditions that comprise the state of the atmosphere in terms of temperature and wind and clouds and precipitation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of being cheerful and dispelling gloom

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

cheer; cheerfulness; sunniness; sunshine

Context example:

flowers added a note of cheerfulness to the drab room

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

attribute (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity)

Attribute:

cheerful (being full of or promoting cheer; having or showing good spirits)

cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sunshine"):

good-humoredness; good-humouredness; good-naturedness; good-temperedness (a cheerful willingness to be obliging)

Holonyms ("sunshine" is a part of...):

disposition; temperament (your usual mood)

 Context examples 

He seemed to think it too good for common purposes: it was the real sunshine of feeling—he shed it over me now.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The whole long day was a blaze of sunshine.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Jupiter, the planet of good fortune, is now settled into your tenth house of honors, awards, and achievement, spreading his sunshine.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Oh, yes, I should like a little sunshine.

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

The animal blinked continually in the sunshine.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“Clear enough,” I answered, glancing at the sunshine which streamed down the open companion-way.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There were few birds in this part of the forest, for birds love the open country where there is plenty of sunshine.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My playing is no more like her's, than a lamp is like sunshine.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

His profession was all that could ever make her friends wish that tenderness less, the dread of a future war all that could dim her sunshine.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)