sb. and a.
1. The light of the stars; occas. the time when the stars shine.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. met. iii. (1868), 39. Þan þe sterre ydimmyd paleþ hir white cheres, by þe flamus of þe sonne þat ouer comeþ þe sterre lyȝt.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 259. Upon a nyht, Whan ther was noght bot sterreliht.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Tenebræ, The sterre light did put away darkenesse.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 29. By fountaine cleere, or spangled star-light sheene.
1634. Milton, Comus, 308. In such a scant allowance of Star-light.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., II. iii. A Gypsan Ladie … Wrought it by Moone-shine for mee, and Star-light.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 90. An hardy and labouring clergy … that can foot it five or six miles in the dirt, and preach till star-light for as many shillings.
1799. Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., Old Woman’s T. (ed. 2), I. 387. They at length emerged to star-light and the open country.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxix. 99. At work, from the grey of the morning till starlight.
1914. H. Newbolt, in Blackw. Mag., Aug., 176/2. He went all night to the Southward by starlight only.
b. transf. and fig.
1530. Tindale, Prol. Levit. And though also that all the ceremonies and sacrifices haue as it were a sterrelyght of Christ, yet some there be that haue as it were the lighte of the brode daye a litle before the sonne risinge.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, IX. lxxxvi. He saw waxe dim the starre-light of his eies.
2. A cluster of artificial lights arranged in the form of a star.
1884. Baptist Yr.-Bk., 357. Star-lights and brackets supply good artificial lighting.
3. attrib. and adj. Of or pertaining to starlight; bright as the stars; appearing or accompanied by starlight; lighted by the stars. [? Partly f. LIGHT a.2]
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 375/2. A cleare and starrelight night.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 174. It is due North from Spahawn, as we observed in our star-light travel.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 548. A Star-light Evening, and a Morning fair.
1803. Visct. Strangford, Poems of Camoens, Madrigal (1810), 41. Starlight eyes, and heaving snows.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. clxxxviii. The silent ocean, and the starlight bay.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xvii. 163. The night was clear starlight.
1869. Dunkin, Midnight Sky, 22. These two stars being never absent from our view on starlight nights.
