Harlem sunset

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English

Etymology

Used in Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely (1940), suggesting the red colour of a sunset.

Noun

Harlem sunset (plural Harlem sunsets)

  1. (US, noir, rare) A fatal wound caused by a knife fight.
    • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, A. A. Knopf, page 14:
      One time there was five smokes carved Harlem sunsets on each other down on East Eighty-four.
    • 1976, Frank Ormsby, “War Memorial”, in Seamus Heaney, editor, Soundings, volume 3, page 15:
      This wasn't some punk carving Harlem sunsets on a drugstore attendant. This was a professional job.
    • 2004 February 1, Desdemona, “{ASSM} Rough Cut: Chap 1 by Desdmona (crime drama)”, in alt.sex.stories.moderated‎ (Usenet):
      The blade had been inches from showing Moe a Harlem sunset. A longer knife, or an extra twist, and Moe would've bled to death before the meat wagon arrived.
    • 2006, Richard E. Sall, Straightjacket, p. 38,
      We had some mean turf wars with rival Latino and Italian gangs, and I've still got the scars to prove it: one under my left eye from some Romano's chain, and one just to the right of my right shoulder blade from some bitch who tried to give me a Harlem sunset –yup, that can happen in Detroit, too.
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