sundowner

From sundown +‎ -er.

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sundowner (plural sundowners)

1. (Australia, obsolete) An itinerant worker, such as a swagman, who arrives at a farm too late in the day to do any work, but readily accepts food and lodging.
   • 2008, Arthur Upfield, Kees de Hoog (editor), Wisp of Wool and Disk of Silver, Up and Down Australia, page 279,

     What he saw was not usual in this part of Australia - a sundowner, a bush waif who tramps from north to south or from east to west, never working, cadging rations from the far-flung homesteads and having the ability of the camel to do without water, or find it.

   • 2010, John Hirst, Looking for Australia: Historical Essays, page 60,

     Like the Australian sundowners, some of these trampers were suspected of never wanting to find a job.

2. (Australia, obsolete) An itinerant worker, a swagman.
3. (nautical) A sea captain who shows harsh discipline by requiring all hands to be on board by sundown.[1]
   • 1985, Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun,

     Arrogant, aloof, and suspicious, a “sundowner,” or strict disciplinarian, King inspired respect in many but affection in few.

4. (medicine, colloquial) A patient, usually demented, who tends to become agitated in the evening.
   • 1977, Jules Hymen Masserman, Current Psychiatric Therapies, page 179,

     These patients may improve by day only to relapse at night (nocturnal delirium or sundowner's syndrome).

   • 1989: William H. Reid, The Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: Revised for the DSM III R., page 71,

     They generally occur in the evening or at night in the form of "sundowner" syndrome, as a result of diminished sensory input and social isolation and/or exposure to an unfamiliar environment (e.g., the hospital).

   • 2007 February 7, Dennis Fiely, Dark Ages: For the elderly fighting mental or physical problems, life takes a frightening turn when nighttime comes, The Columbus Dispatch

     “Sundowner′s syndrome” refers to changes in mood and behavior that begin near dusk.

5. (originally colonial slang, especially southern Africa) A cocktail consumed at sunset, or to signify the end of the day.
   • 1918, Robert Valentine Dolbey, Sketches of the East Africa Campaign, page 117,

     The cocktail, the universal “sherry and bitters” and sundowner will have to be retained.

   • 1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther 1974, p. 146:

     Mrs. Lowe-Island […] had imagined the Sports Club as a large shadowy veranda, with native servants standing like willing statues around the walls, plenty of sundowners, and that laughter which is the result of personal comment […].

   • 2005, Franz Wisner, Honeymoon With My Brother: A Memoir, page 243,

     Per custom, we capped our drives with a sundowner cocktail party at a scenic vantage point.

6. A cocktail party held in the early evening.
   • 2005, Edward M. Bruner, Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel, page 83,

     The Sundowner is basically a cocktail party with a buffet on a riverbank in the bush.

7. A physician employed by the government who practises for private fees after his official hours.

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