shade
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: shād
ipa: /ʃeɪd/
rhymes: -eɪd
Forms: form: shades
Etymology: From Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, sċadu (“shadow; shade”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shadow; shade”). More at shadow.
Senses: examples: text: The old oak tree gave shade in the heat of the day.
text: Temps rose to a sweltering 40 degrees Celsius in the shade.
text: Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
examples: text: Close the shade, please: it's too bright in here.
glosses: Something that blocks light, particularly in a window.
examples: text: I've painted my room in five lovely shades of pink and chartreuse.
text: Thus light and colours, as white, red, yellow, blue, with their several degrees or shades, and mixtures, as green, scarlet, purple, sea-green, and the rest, come in only by the eyes[…]
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:
text: Speaking of round sunglasses, these lightweight polarized ones and come in two shades of tortoiseshell as well as black and bronze.
ref: 2023 June 26, Lauren Caruso and Jillian Tracy, “The 22 best sunglasses for summer, according to style experts”, in CNN:
glosses: A variety of a color, in particular one obtained by adding black (compare tint).
examples: text: shades of meaning
text: new shades and combinations of thought
ref: 1823, Thomas De Quincey, Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected. No. V. On the English Notices of Kant:
text: Every shade of religious and political opinion had its own headquarters.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
glosses: A subtle variation in a concept.
examples: text: shades of Groucho Marx
glosses: An aspect that is reminiscent of something.
examples: text: That is a shade too close.
text: Mrs. Rhodes who (so I gathered from Mr. Petherick's careful language) was perhaps just a shade of a hypochondriac, had retired to bed immediately after dinner.
ref: 1934, Agatha Christie, Miss Marple Tells a Story:
text: Five feet in diameter and a shade above knee high, the center of the fragile white canvass structure is filled with […]
ref: 1990 April 7, Wickie Stamps, “The 'Temple' Is Familiar”, in Gay Community News, page 12:
glosses: A very small degree of a quantity, or variety of meaning
examples: text: Too long have I been haunted by that shade.
text: The adventurer was attacked by a shade.
text: Swift as thought the flitting shade / Thro' air his momentary journey made.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcyone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: Still, Birch House (a sop to the shade of the murdered Perak Resident) had no more than its normal share of flagellation[.]
ref: 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 39:
topics: fantasy
glosses: A ghost or specter; a spirit.
glosses: A postage stamp showing an obvious difference in colour/color to the original printing and needing a separate catalogue/catalog entry.
examples: text: throw shade
text: Why did you paint your room chartreuse? No shade; I'm genuinely curious.
text: Shade is: "I don't tell you you're ugly, but I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly." And that's shade.
ref: 1990, Jennie Livingston, director, Paris Is Burning, spoken by Dorian Corey:
text: In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Carey offered her explanation for how the moment of shade came about.
ref: 2018 November 29, Lisa Respers France, “Mariah Carey’s legendary Jennifer Lopez shade was her ‘trying to be nice’”, in CNN:
glosses: Subtle insults.
examples: text: Lighting was unimaginative for the standard stock with naked tungsten filament bulbs and metal reflectors. However, all compartments had individual reading lights above the seats with attractive glass shades.
ref: 1979 August, Graham Burtenshaw, Michael S. Welch, “O.V.S. Bulleid's SR loco-hauled coaches - 1”, in Railway World, page 398:
glosses: A cover around or above a light bulb, a lampshade.
examples: text: I am now finishing this letter by candle-light, with the help of a handkerchief tied over the shade.
ref: 1817, T. Munro, Life, i. 511:
text: His tent is furnished with a good large bed, mattress, pillow, &c., a few camp-stools or chairs, a folding table, a pair of shades for his candles, six or seven trunks with table equipage, his stock of linen (at least 24 shirts); some dozens of wine, brandy, and gin; tea, sugar, and biscuit; and a hamper of live poultry and his milch-goat.
ref: 1789, Munro's Narrative, 186
glosses: A candle-shade.
Derived terms: candle-shade
cellular shade
eyeshade
lampshade
made in the shade
nightshade
pet lamp-shade
put in the shade
roller shade
Roman shade
seven shades
shade ball
shade carrier
shade cloth
shadeful
shade horsetail
shadeless
shadelessly
shade tree mechanic
shadiness
shady
silver shade
smoke-shade
sunshade
table-shade
turn a number of shades of red
wall-shade
Related terms: scoto-