# sundowner
## English
### Etymology

From sundown +‎ -er.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (General Australian):(file)

### Noun

sundowner (plural sundowners)
* (Australia, obsolete) An itinerant worker, such as a swagman, who arrives at a farm too late in the day to do any work, but readily accepts food and lodging.
** 2008, Arthur Upfield, edited by Kees de Hoog, Wisp of Wool and Disk of Silver: Up and Down Australia, page 279:What he saw was not usual in this part of Australia - a sundowner, a bush waif who tramps from north to south or from east to west, never working, cadging rations from the far-flung homesteads and having the ability of the camel to do without water, or find it.
** 2010, John Hirst, Looking for Australia: Historical Essays, page 60:Like the Australian sundowners, some of these trampers were suspected of never wanting to find a job.
* (Australia, obsolete) An itinerant worker, a swagman.
* (nautical) A sea captain who shows harsh discipline by requiring all hands to be on board by sundown.
** 1985, Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun:Arrogant, aloof, and suspicious, a “sundowner,” or strict disciplinarian, King inspired respect in many but affection in few.
* (medicine, colloquial) A patient, usually demented, who tends to become agitated in the evening.
** 1977, Jules Hymen Masserman, Current Psychiatric Therapies, page 179:These patients may improve by day only to relapse at night (nocturnal delirium or sundowner's syndrome).
** 1989, William H. Reid, The Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: Revised for the DSM III R., page 71:They generally occur in the evening or at night in the form of "sundowner" syndrome, as a result of diminished sensory input and social isolation and/or exposure to an unfamiliar environment (e.g., the hospital).
** 2007 February 7, Dennis Fiely, “Dark Ages: For the elderly fighting mental or physical problems, life takes a frightening turn when nighttime comes”, in The Columbus Dispatch:“Sundowner′s syndrome” refers to changes in mood and behavior that begin near dusk.
* (originally colonial slang, especially southern Africa) A cocktail consumed at sunset, or to signify the end of the day.
** 1918, Robert Valentine Dolbey, Sketches of the East Africa Campaign, page 117:The cocktail, the universal “sherry and bitters” and sundowner will have to be retained.
** 1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 146:Mrs. Lowe-Island […] had imagined the Sports Club as a large shadowy veranda, with native servants standing like willing statues around the walls, plenty of sundowners, and that laughter which is the result of personal comment […].
** 2005, Franz Wisner, Honeymoon With My Brother: A Memoir, page 243:Per custom, we capped our drives with a sundowner cocktail party at a scenic vantage point.
* A cocktail party held in the early evening.
** 2005, Edward M. Bruner, Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel,, page 83:The Sundowner is basically a cocktail party with a buffet on a riverbank in the bush.
* A physician employed by the government who practises for private fees after his official hours.
* Any worker who practises for private fees after official hours.
** 1956, Redbook: The Magazine for Young Adults, volume 108, page 64:These "sundowners" hold jobs in other — usually related — trades, and do their servicing nights and weekends.
** 1961, Radio-electronics, volume 32, page 262:[…] according to Home Furnishings Daily, “Public exposure of the sundowners provides strong support for our campaign for state licensing of TV technicians. […]

#### Derived terms

* sundowner syndrome
* sundowner town

### References

* ↑ (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, 2012 October 3 (last accessed), archived from the original on 14 October 2012

### Anagrams

* newsround, snow under, undersnow, undersown, unwonders