shade

1 partial darkness due to the obstruction of light rays it was hard to see in the shade after being in the brilliant sunlight the trees cast shade Synonyms dusk, penumbra, shadiness, shadow, umbra Related Words blackness, dimness, duskiness, gloom, gloominess, murkiness, obscurity, semidarkness, somberness; cloudiness Near Antonyms brightness, brilliance, effulgence, illumination, incandescence, light, lightness, lucidity, lucidness, luminance, luminosity, luminousness, radiance, radiancy

2 a time or place of little or no light enjoying the cool shade of the evening Synonyms black, blackness, candlelight, darkness, dusk, gloaming, gloom, murk, night, semidarkness, dark, shadows, twilight, umbraRelated Words midnight; blackout, brownout, dimout; shadiness, umbrage; dullness (also dulness), somberness; cloudiness, fogginess, haziness, mistiness, murkiness; dimness, faintness, gloominess, grayness, paleness; half-lightNear Antonyms moonlight, starlight, sunlight; effulgence, radiance, radiancy, shine, sunshine; incandescence, luminance, luminescence, luminosity, luminousnessAntonyms blaze, brightness, brilliance, day, daylight, glare, glow, light, lightness

3 a property that becomes apparent when light falls on an object and by which things that are identical in form can be distinguished a lovely shade of blue Synonyms cast, hue, color, tincture, tinge, tint, toneRelated Words overtone, undertone; primary color, secondary color, tertiary color; brightness, chroma, chromaticity, contrast, lightness, saturation, value; coloration, coloring, colorway, pigmentationNear Antonyms achromatism

4 a very small amount just a shade taller than his dance partner Synonyms ace, bit, crumb, dab, dram, driblet, glimmer, hint, lick, little, mite, nip, ounce, peanuts, ray, scintilla, scruple, particle, shadow, shred, skosh, smack, smell, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin or smidge), snap, soupçon, spark, spatter, speck, splash, spot, sprinkling, strain, streak, suspicion, tad, touch, traceRelated Words hoot, iota, jot, minim, minimum, modicum, semblance, syllable, tittle, vestige, whit; atom, dot, fleck, flyspeck, grain, granule, molecule, morsel, mote, nubbin, patch, scrap; dash, drop, pinch; part, portion, section; bite, nibble, taste; handful, scattering, smatter, smattering; dose, shot; chip, flake, fragment, shard, shiver, sliver, smithereens, splinter; shred, tatter; clipping, paring, shavingNear Antonyms abundance, barrel, boatload, bucket, bundle, bushel, deal, fistful, gobs, heaps, lashings (also lashins) [chiefly British], loads, lot, mass, mess, mountain, much, oodles, passel, peck, pile, plenty, potful, profusion, quantity, raft, reams, scads, stack, wad, wealth; volume; bonanza, embarrassment, excess, overabundance, overage, overflow, overkill, overmuch, oversupply, superabundance, superfluity, surfeit, surplus; chunk, hunk, lump, slab

5 the soul of a dead person thought of especially as appearing to living people spirits and shades haunting the night Synonyms apparition, bogey (also bogie or bogy), familiar spirit, hant [dialect], haunt [chiefly dialect], materialization, phantasm (also fantasm), phantom, poltergeist, ghost, shadow, specter (or spectre), spirit, spook, sprite, vision, visitant, wraithRelated Words angel, daimon, familiar, genie, genius, jinni (or jinn also djinni or djinn), shaitan; double, doppelgänger (or doppelganger), fetch; lemures, manes; incubus, lamia, succubus, vampire, zombie (also zombi); cacodemon, demon (or daemon), devil, fiend, ghoul, imp

to shelter (something) from light and heat the trees shaded us quite nicely from the noonday sun Synonyms shadow Related Words cloud, darken, dim, dull, overcast, overshadow; canopy, cover, protect, screen Near Antonyms illuminate, light, lighten; expose