Definition

Noun: * The time of day when the sun appears above the eastern horizon; dawn, sunrise. It refers to the moment or period at the beginning of the day when the sky first begins to lighten and the sun becomes visible.

Usage

• Sunup is used to indicate a specific time of day, often in contrast to sundown.
• It is commonly used in informal or rural contexts, especially in American English.
• It can be used with prepositions like at, before, after, or by.

Examples

• The farmers start their work at sunup.
• We need to leave before sunup to avoid the traffic.
• The journey from here to the coast takes from sunup to sundown.

Advanced Usage

• By sunup: Meaning no later than the time the sun rises.
  • The troops were ordered to be in position by sunup.
• Sunup to sundown: An idiom describing a full day's work or a long, continuous period.
  • He worked from sunup to sundown to finish the project.

Variants and Related Words

• Sunrise (noun): A more common and formal synonym for sunup. It can also refer specifically to the visual event of the sun rising.
• Dawn (noun): The time of day when light first appears in the sky, before the sun rises. It is often used interchangeably with sunup.
• Daybreak (noun): Another synonym for the first appearance of light in the morning.
• Morning (noun): A broader period of time that includes sunup.

Synonyms

• Dawn
• Sunrise
• Daybreak
• First light
• Cockcrow (archaic)

Antonyms

• Sundown
• Sunset
• Dusk
• Nightfall

Noun

1. the first light of day
   • we got up before dawn
   • they talked until morning