Emily Dickinson Lexicon

noon (-s), n. [OE < L. nōne, nine, ninth hour of the day.]

1. Midday; end of morning.
2. Full sunshine; radiant solar energy; hottest part of a day; highest point in the sun's apparent trajectory.
3. Day; daytime; daylight; time for being awake; [metonymy] life; mortality; earthly existence.
4. Culmination of day; climax of the daily solar cycle; [fig.] brilliance; outpouring of light.
5. Infinite light; [fig.] heaven; eternity; celestial degree of glory.
6. Twelfth hour; 12 o'clock in the time of day.
7. Waves of light.
8. Zenith; highest point of life.
9. Time of day; hour when a main meal is eaten.
10. Enlightenment; [fig.] delight; [paradox] light; illumination; [phrase “noon at night”] midnight (see Dryden reference in NOON, n., Webster's 1844).
11. Middle of the day; time when the sun appears highest above the earth.
12. Afternoon; second half of the day; time frame from the noon meal to the evening meal; time period before and after the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) in Roman time.