different between sunburnt vs unburnt

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

English

Etymology

un- +? burnt

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??(r)nt

Adjective

unburnt (comparative more unburnt, superlative most unburnt)

1. Not burnt or burned.

Alternative forms

• unburned

Translations