different between sunburn vs sunburnt

English

Etymology

From Middle English *sunne burnen, *sonne brennen, *sunne brennen (suggested by derivatives sonne brennynge, sunne brennynge (“sunburn”, literally “sun-burning”) and sunne brente (“sunburnt”), equivalent to sun +? burn. Compare West Frisian sinnebrân (“sunburn”), Dutch zonnebrand (“sunburn”), German Sonnenbrand (“sunburn”), Swedish solbränna (“sunburn”), Icelandic sólbruni (“sunburn”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?nb?n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?nb??n/

Noun

sunburn (countable and uncountable, plural sunburns)

1. A burn on the skin caused by excess exposure to the sun's rays.
2. A burn on the tissue of crop plants or their fruits (especially if they are rich in water like tomatoes, grapes, apples, gooseberries) caused by excess exposure to the sun's rays.

   Synonym: sunscald

Related terms

• sunburnt
• windburn

Translations

Verb

sunburn (third-person singular simple present sunburns, present participle sunburning, simple past and past participle sunburned)

1. (intransitive) To receive a sunburn.
   • c. 1613, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, London: D.N. and T.C., 1678, Act V, Scene 2, p. 64,^[1]

     I have brought

     Your grace a Salamanders skin, to keep you

     From sun-burning.

   • 1724, Aaron Hill, The Plain Dealer, No. 81, 28 December, 1724, London: S. Richardson and A. Wilde, Volume 2, p. 199,^[2]

     […] there is a a Country, in the World, call’d Turkey; where Women are secur’d against the Danger of Sun-burning, by being kept out of the open Air, and lock’d up, like other Jewels, in Places where no Mischief can reach ’em.
2. (transitive) To burn or tan (someone's skin) by the sun; to allow (a part of one's body) to become sunburnt.
   • 1668, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all, London: H. Herringman, Act II, p. 11,^[3]

     My Aunt charg’d me not to pull off my Glove for fear of Sun-burning my hand.

   • 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Penguin, 1999, Part 3, Chapter 1, p. 171,^[4]

     As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge gold sunburning clouds above the desert […]

   • 1989, Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees, New York: Harper and Row, Chapter 7, p. 95,^[5]

     “Oh shoot, I’ve sunburned the top half of my boobs,” she said, frowning down her chest.

Translations

Anagrams

• unburns

English

Alternative forms

• sunburned

Etymology

From Middle English sunne brente, equivalent to sun +? burnt.

Adjective

sunburnt (comparative more sunburnt, superlative most sunburnt)

1. (of human skin) Having a sunburn or dark tan; having been burned by the sun's rays.
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, Scene 1,^[1]

     You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary,

     Come hither from the furrow and be merry:

   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, London: Benjamin Motte, Volume 1, Part 2, Chapter 1, p. 171,^[2]

     […] I must beg leave to say for my self, that I am as fair as most of my Sex and Country, and very little sun-burnt by my Travels.

   • 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders, London: Macmillan, Volume 2, Chapter 12, p. 230,^[3]

     He looked and smelt like Autumn’s very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat-colour, his eyes blue as corn-flowers, his sleeves and leggings dyed with fruit-stains […]

   • 2000, Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, New York: Random House, Part 3, Chapter 1, p. 168,^[4]

     His face was sunburned bright red, and the skin of his ears was peeling.

2. (of plants and other objects) Dried by the sun's rays.
   • 1753, Arthur Murphy, The Gray’s-Inn Journal, No. 53, 20 October, 1753, London: P. Vaillant, 1756, Volume 2, p. 191,^[5]

     The barren Heath, and the Sun-burnt craggy Soil appear with all those Softenings to the Eye, which Distance throws upon a Landscape;

   • 1842, Charles Dickens, American Notes, London: Chapman and Hall, Volume 1, Chapter 7, p. 267,^[6]

     the well-remembered dusty road and sun-burnt fields

   • 1847, William Hickling Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru, New York: Harper, Volume 2, Books 3, Chapter 10, p. 73,^[7]

     The […] fortress of the Incas stood on a lofty eminence, the steep sides of which […] were cut into terraces, defended by strong walls of stone and sunburnt brick.

   • 1901, Rudyard Kipling, Kim, London: Macmillan, 1902, Chapter 13, p. 329,^[8]

     out on to the bare hillside’s sunburnt grass

3. (of places or objects) Subject to the strong heat and/or light of the sun.
   • 1790, Samuel Jackson Pratt, The New Cosmetic: or The Triumph of Beauty, London: for the author, Act I, p. 3,^[9]

     So my dear Charles, you are at length […] arrived in our little sun-burnt island?

   • 1856, John Ruskin, Modern Painters, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 4, Part 5, Chapter 16, p. 251,^[10]

     […] when distances are obscured by mist […] the foreground assumes all its loveliest hues, the grass and foliage revive into their perfect green, and every sunburnt rock glows into an agate.

   • 1978, Jan Morris, Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part 3, Chapter 26, p. 536,^[11]

     Most of it [the island of Mauritius] was high […] so that gusts of fresh winds often blew exuberantly off the sea, and the British could build their villas far above the sunburnt coast.

4. Resembling a sunburn in color.

   The van was painted a sunburnt brown.

Translations