sunburnt

English

Alternative forms

• sunburned

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, / Come hither from the furrow and be merry:

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. ”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume I, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 171:

     […] I must beg leave to say for my self, that I am as fair as most of my Sex and Country, and very little sun-burnt by my Travels.

   • 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter XII, in The Woodlanders , volume II, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 230:

     He looked and smelt like Autumn’s very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat-colour, his eyes blue as corn-flowers, his sleeves and leggings dyed with fruit-stains […]

   • 2000, Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay‎, New York: Random House, Part 3, Chapter 1, p. 168:

     His face was sunburned bright red, and the skin of his ears was peeling.

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,

     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, 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, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part 3, Chapter 26, p. 536:

     Most of it 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

Verb

sunburnt

1. simple past and past participle of sunburn