Also † summer’s time.
1. The season of summer; the time that summer lasts.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 94. In somer tyme on trowes, Þere somme bowes ben leued and somme bereth none.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 400. Hete of somer tyme.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., X. 153. In somer tyme hym liketh wel to glade.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 345. To Dondei, and S. Johnestoune quhair al that selfe seasone of he ȝeir and sommer tyme he consumet.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xcvii. And yet this time remou’d was sommers time.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), I. 87. About 8 o’clock in the afternoone (somer time) he comaunded the horse to come home and make readie.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, xl. I thought my cousin would not … have come to town in the summer-time.
1800. Wordsw., Hart-leap Well, 69. In the summer-time, when days are long, I will come hither.
1846. Dickens, Battle of Life, III. The withered leaves of many summer-times had rustled there.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, xi. We’ve lots of ’em sketching about Denham woods in summer time.
2. The standard time (in advance of ordinary time) adopted in some countries during the summer months (in the British Isles, in 1916, from 21 May to 30 September).
1916. Act 6 & 7 Geo. V., c. 14. An Act to provide for the Time in Great Britain and Ireland being in advance of Greenwich and Dublin mean time respectively in the summer months … This Act may be cited as the Summer Time Act, 1916.
