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.
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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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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