evening gun

plural evening guns

1. governmentThe firing of a gun after the last note of the retreat, signalling the lowering of the flag at sunset; the gun thus fired.

   That life is not worth living the whole army of suicides declare,—an army whose roll-call, like the famous evening gun of the British army, follows the sun round the world and never terminates.

   1897, William James, “Is Life Worth Living”, in The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy

   Synonyms: retreat gun