[f. SUN sb. + DIAL sb.1] A contrivance for showing the time of day by means of a shadow cast by the sun upon a surface marked with a diagram indicating the hours. (Earlier called simply dial.)
Usually a fixed structure of stone, metal or other hard substance; sometimes a portable object, as a card, requiring adjustment by means of a compass or otherwise.
1599. Minsheu, Relox del sol, a sunne diall.
c. 1629. in Maitl. Club Misc., III. 375. Ane Sone dyall and ane piller to set it on.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. xv. (1848), 254. The Boat-man took out of his Pocket a little Sun-Dyal, furnished with an excited Needle to direct how to Set it.
1727. Pope, Thoughts Var. Subj., Swift’s Wks. 1751, IV. 292. Like a Sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the Neighbours and Passengers, but not the Owner within.
1764. J. Ferguson, Lect., 221. How to make sun-dials by the assistance of a good globe.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., Introd. (1889), 2. The great college sun-dial, over the lodge.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, 183. A good terse motto is a desirable addition to a sun-dial.
