sum|mer

sum|mer¹ «SUHM uhr», noun, adjective, verb.

–n.

1. the warmest season of the year; season of the year between spring and autumn: »

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate (Shakespeare).

2. Figurative. anything considered like summer in its warmth, full beauty, healthy maturity, or the like: »

a young man in the summer of his life. But thy eternal summer shall not fade (Shakespeare). I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more (Edna St. Vincent Millay).

–adj.

1. of summer; in summer: »

a summer night, summer flowers, summer heat. Figurative. Some happy summer isle (William Morris).

2. used in summer; for summer: »

summer clothes, a summer cottage.

3. held in or during the summer: »

a summer job, summer sessions, a summer program, summer theater.

–v.i.

to spend the summer: »

to summer at the seashore.

–v.t.

to keep or feed during the summer; arrange or manage during the summer: »

to summer the stock, to summer cattle in the mountains.

╂[Old English sumor]

sum|mer² «SUHM uhr», noun.

1. a horizontal bearing beam in a building, especially the main beam supporting the girders or joists of a floor (or occasionally the rafters of a roof).

2. a large stone laid over a column in beginning a cross vault.

3. = lintel. (Cf. ↑lintel)

╂[< Anglo-French sumer, and somer, variant of Old French somier (originally) beast of burden < Late Latin saumārius, for Latin sagmārius pack horse < sagma pack saddle < Greek ságma, -atos < sáttein to pack, stuff]