An old British term for evening twilight — the quiet, dim window of time between sunset and full dark when the light turns grey and soft. Cockshut time was when woodcocks and other birds would fly low through the glades and could be caught in nets strung between trees; it was a specific, practical hour for rural folk. The phrase has since faded from everyday use but lives on in poetry, historical fiction, and anyone who loves a good archaic turn of phrase for the golden hour.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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The village settled into an easy quiet at cockshut time, with only the distant bleating of sheep breaking the dusk.
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(UK, dated) Evening twilight; nightfall.
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