noon

plural noons

1. countableuncountableThe time of day when the Sun seems to reach its highest point in the sky; solar noon.

   The race is due to start at noon sharp.

   3 more examples

   On Saturdays, I love to have a lie-in until noon.

   The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

   1933, Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution

   The fire was put out by around 8:10 a.m. by the Rockdale County Fire Rescue. But around noon, another fire erupted, according to the CSB.

   2024 November 24, Chris Boyette, “Investigators release update on BioLab chemical plant fire probe”, in CNN

   1. countableuncountableThe mean time of solar noon, marked as twelve o'clock on most clocks.
2. archaiccountableuncountableThe corresponding time in the middle of the night; midnight.

   When night was at its noon I heard a voice chanting the Koran in sweetest accents […].

   1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Night 17

   1 more example

   So the sad mother at the noon of night / From bloody Memphis stole her silent flight […].

   1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 116

   Synonyms: noon of night

3. countableobsoleteuncountableThe ninth hour of the day counted from sunrise; around three o'clock in the afternoon.

   Synonyms: nones, midday

4. countablefigurativelyuncountableThe highest point; culmination.

   In the very noon of that brilliant life which was destined to be so soon, and so fatally, overshadowed.

   1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: capstone

present singular third person noons · participle present nooning · participle past nooned · past nooned

1. intransitiveTo relax or sleep around midday.

   They nooned at a spring and squatted about the cold and blackened sticks of some former fire and ate cold beans and tortillas out of a newspaper.

   1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, →ISBN, page 157

   3 more examples

   We presently turned just aside from the trail into an episode of beautiful prairie, one of a succession along the plateau at the crest of the range. At this height of about five thousand feet, the snows remain until June. In this fair, oval, forest-circled prairie of my nooning, the grass was long and succulent, as if it grew in the bed of a drained lake.

   1853, Theodore Winthrop, The Canoe and the Saddle

   Between six and nine we made ten miles, which was plenty for a horse carrying triple—man, woman, and armor; then we stopped for a long nooning under some trees by a limpid brook.

   1889, Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Chapter XX

   Well, we crossed and nooned, lying around on purpose to give them a good lead, and when we hit the trail back in these sand-hills, there he was, not a mile ahead, and you can see there was no chance to get around

   1906, Andy Adams, The Double Trail

   Synonyms: sleep

plural noons

1. The letter ن in the Arabic script.

plural Noons

1. A surname.

plural Noons

1. countableAn ethnic people who occupy western Senegal.
2. uncountableThe language of these people.