sunburnt

comparative more sunburnt · superlative most sunburnt · alternative sunburned

1. Having a sunburn or dark tan; having been burned by the sun's rays.

   His face was sunburned bright red, and the skin of his ears was peeling.

   2000, Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, New York: Random House, Part 3, Chapter 1, p. 168

   3 more examples

   You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, / Come hither from the furrow and be merry:

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

   […] I must beg leave to say for my self, that I am as fair as most of my Sex and Country, and very little sun-burnt by my Travels.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 171

   He looked and smelt like Autumn’s very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat-colour, his eyes blue as corn-flowers, his sleeves and leggings dyed with fruit-stains […]

   1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter XII, in The Woodlanders […], volume II, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 230

2. Dried out by the sun's rays.

   1753, Arthur Murphy, The Gray’s-Inn Journal, No. 53, 20 October, 1753, London: P. Vaillant, 1756, Volume 2, p. 191, The barren Heath, and the Sun-burnt craggy Soil appear with all those Softenings to the Eye, which Distance throws upon a Landscape;

   3 more examples

   the well-remembered dusty road and sun-burnt fields

   1842, Charles Dickens, chapter VII, in American Notes for General Circulation. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 267

   The […] fortress of the Incas stood on a lofty eminence, the steep sides of which […] were cut into terraces, defended by strong walls of stone and sunburnt brick.

   1847, William H. Prescott, chapter X, in A History of the Conquest of Peru, volume II, page 73

   [O]ut on to the bare hillside’s sunburnt grass

   1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter XIII, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 329

3. Subject to the strong heat and/or light of the sun.

   So my dear Charles, you are at length […] arrived in our little sun-burnt island?

   1790, Samuel Jackson Pratt, The New Cosmetic: or The Triumph of Beauty, London, act I, page 3

   2 more examples

   […] when distances are obscured by mist […] the foreground assumes all its loveliest hues, the grass and foliage revive into their perfect green, and every sunburnt rock glows into an agate.

   1856, John Ruskin, chapter 16, in Modern Painters […], volume IV, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, part V (Of Mountain Beauty), page 251

   Most of it [the island of Mauritius] was high […] so that gusts of fresh winds often blew exuberantly off the sea, and the British could build their villas far above the sunburnt coast.

   1978, Jan Morris, Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part 3, Chapter 26, p. 536

4. Resembling a sunburn in color.

   The van was painted a sunburnt brown.

alternative sunburned

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of sunburn