summer Definition

summer¹
noun

1. The warmest season of the year, between spring and autumn, extending from about June to August in the N hemisphere and from about December to February in the S hemisphere.

Form: Summer (also)
2. The warm sunny weather that is associated with summer. See also Indian summer.

Example: a beautiful summer's day
3. astron.
The period of the year between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox (see under equinox).
4. literary
A time of greatest energy, happiness, etc; a heyday.
Example: in the summer of her life
5. old use, poetic
A year, especially as thought of in terms of someone's age.
Example: an old lady of ninety summers
Form: summers (usually)

verb summered, summering

1. To pass the summer.

Example: summered in Nice
2. To put (livestock) to pasture for the summer.

Example: summered their sheep on the hillside

Derivative: summerlike
adj

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon sumer.

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summer²
noun

1. A horizontal load-bearing beam, especially one that supports the girders or joists of a floor or, less commonly, the rafters of a roof.

Form: summer-tree (also)

Etymology: 14c: from French sumer, from somier pack-horse or beam, from Greek sagma a pack-saddle.