Evening in its primary meaning is the period of the day between afternoon and night. Though the term is subjective, evening is typically understood to begin just before dusk, when temperatures begin to fall, and last until just after nightfall, when complete darkness has been reached.
Companies often use the time of 5:00 pm to mark the beginning of the evening, for example with evening telephone call rates.
Informally, the term "evening" is used in place of "night", especially in the context of an event which takes place over the course of said "evening".
In the vernacular of at least parts of the rural American South (notably Appalachia) and in some British dialects, "evening" ( /ˈiːvnɪn/) is used to mean "afternoon", as the main meal of the day, dinner, traditionally has occurred at midday. While the exact meaning of the word in this sense is subject to interpretation, "evening" in the rural American South usually has been thought of as beginning at about noon and extending roughly until sunset or suppertime.
Famous quotes containing the word evening:
“Ah! gentle may I lay me down, and gentle rest my head,
And gentle sleep the sleep of death, and gentle hear the voice
Of Him that walketh in the garden in the evening time!””
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“In the right stage of the weather a pond fires its evening gun with great regularity.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Here, with whitened hair, desires failing, strength ebbing out of him, with the sun gone down and with only the serenity and the calm warning of the evening star left to him, he drank to Life, to all it had been, to what it was, to what it would be. Hurrah!”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)