Definition of "sun"

"I suppose I may have leave to do that!" Yes, she could do that, he said, but there was no road to that place; it lay east of the sun and west of the moon, and she could never find her way there.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 233

'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

Because Haestrom's sun has overwhelmed the planet's protective magnetosphere, humans foolhardy enough to venture into geth-controlled Haestrom must exercise extreme caution. Minutes of radiation exposure will overload shields and hours of exposure will kill.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Haestrom Codex entry

Lambs that did frisk in the sun.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

His fair hair waved long and freely over a white and unwrinkled forehead: the life of a camp and the suns of Italy had but little embrowned his clear and healthful complexion, which retained much of the bloom of youth.

1835, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Knight of Provençe, and His Proposal”, in Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], book II (The Revolution), page 184

For the Lord God is a sun and shield.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalm 74:11

I will never consent to put out the sun of sovereignity to posterity.

1649, Charles I of England (attributed), Eikon Basilike

Imogen: […] Pr'ythee, speak, / How many score of miles may we well ride / 'Twixt hour and hour / Pisanio: One score, 'twixt sun and sun, / Madam, 's enough for you; and too much too. / Imogen: Why, one that rode to his execution, man, / Could never go so slow.

1609-11, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act III, scene 2

[W]hilst many an hunger-starved poor creature pines in the street, wants clothes to cover him, labours hard all day long, runs, rides for a trifle, fights peradventure from sun to sun, sick and ill, weary, full of pain and grief, is in great distress and sorrow of heart.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps

I love these sons of earth every mother's son of them, with their great hearty hearts rushing tumultuously in herds from spectacle to spectacle, as if fearful lest there should not be time between sun and sun to see them all, and the sun does not wait more than in haying-time.

1849, Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, published 1873, page 357

You see, the President has five jobs, any one of which would be more than a full-time job for one man; but I have to do all five of them between sun and sun.

1962, Harry S. Truman, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, page 651

“Tomorrow at first sun.” Not being much of a morning person, she winced internally. “First sun?” “It is the proper time, when the flowers of the pohoroh first open to the light.”

1997, Alan Dean Foster, Howling Stones, page 149

Four suns since was the word brought to me from ‘She-who-must-be-obeyed,’ ‘White men come; if white men come, slay them not.’ Let them be brought to the house of ‘She-who-must-be-obeyed.’

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

There were lots of zany antics and we tried not to stare too obviously at the beautiful women toplessly sunning themselves...

2000, William Laurance, Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles: Confessions of a Rainforest Biologist

Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines. A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.