daylight

plural daylights · alternative day-light

1. countableuncountableThe natural light that is ambient in daytime, being mostly sunlight (both direct and indirect, on either sunny days or cloudy days).

   Meronym: sunbeams

   2 more examples

   Near-synonyms: sunlight, sunshine

   In those days the entire factory was lit only by daylight and was closed at night.

   Synonyms: sunlight, sunshine

2. countableuncountableA light source that simulates daylight.
3. countableThe intensity distribution of light over the visible spectrum generated by the Sun under various conditions or by other light sources intended to simulate natural daylight.
4. countableuncountableThe period of time between sunrise and sunset.

   burning daylight

   2 more examples

   wasting daylight

   We should get home while it's still daylight.

   Synonyms: daytime, day, daylength, daytime, photoperiod

5. countableuncountableDaybreak.

   We had only two hours to work before daylight.

   1 more example

   Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.

   1835, Sir John Ross, Sir James Clark Ross, Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Volume 1, pages 284–5

   Synonyms: sunlight, sunrise, dayspring, dawn, ass crack of dawn, break, break of dawn, break of day

6. countableuncountableExposure to public scrutiny.

   Budgeting a spy organization can't very well be done in daylight.

   Synonyms: sunshine

7. countableuncountableA clear, open space.

   All small running backs instinctively run to daylight.

   2 more examples

   He could barely see daylight through the complex clockwork.

   Finally, after weeks of work on the project, they could see daylight.

8. countablemachineryThe space between platens on a press or similar machinery.

   The minimum and maximum daylights on an injection molding machine determines the sizes of the items it can make.

9. countablefigurativelyuncountableEmotional or psychological distance between people, or disagreement.

   We completely agree. There's no daylight between us on the issue.

   1 more example

   Sometimes hosts are a little saltier when the cameras aren’t rolling, but I don’t recall ever hearing any daylight between the views they express on-air and off.

   2023 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “What Fox News Says When You’re Not Listening”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

10. countablefigurativelyuncountableMeaningful or noticeable difference or distinction between two things, especially concepts.

    There's not much daylight between saying that the universe is God and saying that God doesn't exist.

11. countableuncountableThe gap between the top of a drinking-glass and the level of drink it is filled with.

present singular third person daylights · participle present daylighting · participle past daylighted · past daylighted · participle past daylit · past daylit · alternative day-light

1. To expose to daylight

   […] she was not looking at the daylit, sunny world which she so wanted to see.

   1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 15, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998

   1 more example

   […] the Morlocks, subterranean for innumerable generations, had come at last to find the daylit surface intolerable.

   1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 7”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC

2. architectureTo provide sources of natural illumination such as skylights or windows.
3. To allow light in, as by opening drapes.
4. landscapingcivil engineeringTo run a drainage pipe to an opening from which its contents can drain away naturally.
5. intransitiveTo gain exposure to the open.

   The seam of coal daylighted at a cliff by the river.

   1 more example

   Tunnels were enlarged or daylighted and clearances generally greatly improved.

   1964 October, “Letters: A US lesson in high-capacity freight stock”, in Modern Railways, page 233

6. intransitiveTo moonlight (work a second, often illicit job) during the daytime.

   But I find that we have a large number of service wives who are daylighting. Some of them are not only working in the evening, but also during the day.

   1965, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services, Military Pay Increase: Hearings..., page 81