English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English sunne brente, equivalent to sun +‎ burnt.

Pronunciation edit

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Adjective edit

sunburnt (comparative more sunburnt, superlative most sunburnt)

  1. (of human skin) Having a sunburn or dark tan; having been burned by the sun's rays.
  2. (of plants and other objects) 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,[2]
      The barren Heath, and the Sun-burnt craggy Soil appear with all those Softenings to the Eye, which Distance throws upon a Landscape;
    • 1842, Charles Dickens, chapter VII, in American Notes for General Circulation. [], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, [], →OCLC, page 267:
      the well-remembered dusty road and sun-burnt fields
    • 1847, William H. Prescott, chapter X, in A History of the Conquest of Peru, volume II, page 73:
      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.
    • 1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 13, in Kim (Macmillan’s Colonial Library; no. 414), London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 329:
      [O]ut on to the bare hillside’s sunburnt grass
  3. (of places or objects) Subject to the strong heat and/or light of the sun.
    • 1790, Samuel Jackson Pratt, The New Cosmetic: or The Triumph of Beauty[3], London, act I, page 3:
      So my dear Charles, you are at length [] arrived in our little sun-burnt island?
    • 1856, John Ruskin, chapter 16, in Modern Painters [], volume IV, London: Smith, Elder and Co., [], →OCLC, part V (Of Mountain Beauty), page 251:
      [] 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.
    • 1978, Jan Morris, Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat[4], New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part 3, Chapter 26, p. 536:
      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.
  4. Resembling a sunburn in color.
    The van was painted a sunburnt brown.

Translations edit

Verb edit

sunburnt

  1. simple past and past participle of sunburn