Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for Night (-s, -'s)
night (-s, -'s), n. [OE.]
- Nox; [personification] time of darkness from dusk to dawn.
- Time preceding daylight; hours from sunset to sunrise; period when the sun is beneath the horizon.
- Evening; time prior to the next day.
- Darkness; decline of the day.
- Ignorance; moral darkness; warped state; concealment from the eyes; obscurity.
- Death; end of life.
- Dark half of day; twelve hours of darkness; [fig.] brief time of death; short period of dying.
- Adversity; distress; state of unrest.
- Phrase. “Good night”: evening greeting; salutation for bedtime; [fig.] farewell to deceased loved one.
- Phrase. “Wild nights”: process of dying; time of death; passing away to the other side (see L331, ED's 1869 letter to Perez Cowan, “Dying is a wild Night”).
- Phrase. “Last night”: the previous evening; the evening of the day before.
Return to page 9 of the letter “n”.