[f. SUN sb. Cf. G. sonnen.]
1. trans. To place in or expose to the sun; to subject to the action of the sun’s rays; to warm, dry, etc., in sunshine.
[1519: see SUNNING vbl. sb. 1].
1558. Phaër, Æneid, V. M ij b. Mewes and birds of seas … sonne their fethers.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 739. It doth redily draw vnto it the qualities … of those herbes … with which it is set to be sonned.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 97. Cinnamon if it be sunned too long … suffereth a torrefaction.
1802. Wordsw., To the Daisy, ii. Spring parts the clouds with softest airs, That she may sun thee.
1807. P. Gass, Jrnl., 239. We remained here all day airing and sunning our baggage and stores.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, ii. 15. My … uncle is sure to be sunning his waistcoat in Piccadilly.
fig. 1807. J. Barlow, Columb., IV. 450. Prometheus … from the floods of day Sunn’d his clear soul with heaven’s internal ray.
1815. Byron, Hebrew Mel., All is Vanity, i. I sunn’d my heart in beauty’s eyes.
b. To sun salmon: see SUNNING vbl. sb. 3.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., xxix. (1855), 235. I observed a fellow, in the parlance of the border, sunning salmon.
2. a. refl. To expose oneself to or bask in the sun.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 720. Seales … meete together in droves to sleepe and sunne themselves.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 635. To roofy Houses they repair, Or sun themselves abroad in open air.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 155, ¶ 4. These … used to sun themselves in that place … about dinner-time.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xlii. He suns himself there after his breakfast when the day is suitable.
1885. E. Arnold, Secret of Death, 6. While the snake sunned himself at ease, And monkeys chattered in the trees.
fig. 1841. Miall, in Nonconf., I. 9. A privileged class suns itself in the beams of majesty.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. ix. 330. The Frenchmen … who had sunned themselves in the smiles of the court.
b. intr. for refl. or pass.; also fig.
Orig. in gerundial phr. a sunning: see SUNNING vbl. sb. 1 b.
1592. Nobody & Someb., in Simpson, Sch. Shaks. (1878), I. 348. Let me be hangd up sunning in the ayre, And made a scarcrow.
1611. Second Maiden’s Tragedy (Malone Soc.), 13. Vsurpers svnnynge in their glories like Adders in warme beames.
1622. Wither, Mistr. Philar., Wks. (1633), 653. The while he lies Sunning in his Mistresse Eyes.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), ii. 63. He loves the clouds, and watches them folding and sunning.
3. intr. To shine as or like the sun. rare.
1611. Cotgr., Soleillant, Sunning, Sunnie.
1845. Mrs. Norton, Child of Islands (1846), 42. Man’s heart hath buds and leaves Which, sunned upon, put forth immortal bloom.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. XXII. ix. Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls, To the flowers, and be their sun.
1888. T. Watts, in Athenæum, 17 March, 341. A look of joy went sunning over his worn face.
4. trans. To shine upon or illumine as or like the sun. Chiefly poet.
1637. N. W[hiting], Albino & Bellama, 123. To make Bellama smile, And with one ray sun her Albino’s heart.
1722. W. Hamilton, Wallace, 78. His Arm no longer could … Shine in fulgent Arms, and Sun the field.
c. 1820. S. Rogers, Italy, Pilgrim, 22. A glade Far, far within, sunned only at noonday.
1867. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., ii. (1870), 30. Snowed on and sunned in the same hour, these flowers were yet … among the loveliest of nature’s productions.
5. with advb. extension: To bring or get into a specified condition by exposure to, or illumination by, the sun. Chiefly fig.
1836. Sir H. Taylor, Statesman, xv. 103. A disposition [such] that he may sun out all the good in men’s natures.
1845. Bailey, Festus (ed. 2), 240. But his heart ripened most ’neath southern eyes, Which sunned their sweets into him all day long.
1894. Brit. Jrnl. Photog., XLI. 44. Prints were often improved by sunning down the blank sky space.
1896. A. Austin, England’s Darling, III. i. Sunning grey wrinkles into golden smiles.
