shade

American  

[shayd] / ʃeɪd /

noun

• shades
  plural

1. the comparative darkness caused by the interception or screening of rays of light from an object, place, or area.

   Synonyms:

   dusk, gloom, obscurity

   Antonyms:

   glare, light

2. a place or an area of comparative darkness, such as one sheltered from the sun.

3. window shade.

4. a lampshade.

5. anything used for protection against excessive light, heat, etc.

   Synonyms:

   screen, veil

6. a shadow.

7. the degree of darkness of a color, determined by the quantity of black or by the lack of illumination.

8. comparative darkness, as the effect of shadow or dark and light, in pictorial representation; the dark part, or a dark part, of a picture or drawing.

9. (in architectural shades and shadows) a shadow upon those parts of a solid that are tangent to or turned away from the parallel rays from the theoretical light source.

10. shades,

    1. Informal. sunglasses.

    2. darkness gathering at the close of day.

       Shades of night are falling.

    3. a reminder of something.

       shades of the Inquisition.

11. a slight variation or degree.

    a shade of difference.

    Synonyms:

    nuance, gradation

12. a little bit; touch, especially of something that may change the color of or lighten or darken something else.

    coffee with a shade of cream.

    Synonyms:

    suggestion, hint, trace

13. Usually shades. a secluded or obscure place.

    He was living in the shades.

14. comparative obscurity.

15. Slang. insults, criticism, or disrespect delivered in an indirect, artful manner: No shade to anyone with kids out there, but I could never be a parent.

    The network cast some subtle shade at its rival with its new advertisement.

    No shade to anyone with kids out there, but I could never be a parent.

16. a specter or ghost.

    Synonyms:

    spirit, phantom, apparition

17. Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology. one of the spirits of the dead inhabiting Hades.

18. the shades, Hades, as the abode of the spirits of the dead.

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verb (used with object)

• shades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• shaded,
  past participle,  past
• shading
  present participle

1. to produce comparative darkness in or on.

2. to obscure, dim, or darken.

   Synonyms:

   obfuscate, blur, cloud

3. to screen or hide from view.

   Synonyms:

   conceal, shelter

4. to protect (something) from light, heat, etc., by or as if by a screen.

   It is important to shade the eyes from a bright light.

5. to cover or screen (a candle, light, etc.).

   Shade the light to protect your eyes.

6. Fine Arts.

   1. to introduce degrees of darkness into (a drawing or painting) in order to render light and shadow or give the effect of color.

   2. to render the values of light and dark in (a drawn figure, object, etc.), especially in order to create the illusion of three-dimensionality.

7. to change by imperceptible degrees into something else.

8. to reduce (the price) by way of a concession.

9. Slang. to insult, criticize, or disrespect (a person or thing) in an indirect, artful manner.

   He got into a fight with someone who shaded his mom.

verb (used without object)

• shades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• shaded,
  past participle,  past
• shading
  present participle

1. to pass or change by slight graduations, as one color, quality, or thing into another.

verb phrase

1. shade up to take shelter (as livestock) from the sun.

idioms

1. throw shade, to insult, criticize, or disrespect a person or thing in an indirect, artful manner.

   He threw some shade at his former boss.

2. cast / put someone in / into the shade, to make another person's efforts seem insignificant by comparison; surpass.

   The architectural brilliance of the celebrated city put the sights of my hometown in the shade.

shade British  

/ ʃeɪd /

noun

1. relative darkness produced by the blocking out of light

2. a place made relatively darker or cooler than other areas by the blocking of light, esp sunlight

3. a position of relative obscurity

4. something used to provide a shield or protection from a direct source of light, such as a lampshade

5. a darker area indicated in a painting, drawing, etc, by shading

6. a colour that varies slightly from a standard colour due to a difference in hue, saturation, or luminosity

   a darker shade of green

7. a slight amount

   a shade of difference

8. literary a ghost

9. an archaic word for shadow

10. to appear better than (another); surpass

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verb

1. to screen or protect from heat, light, view, etc

2. to make darker or dimmer

3. to represent (a darker area) in (a painting, drawing, etc), by means of hatching, using a darker colour, etc

4. (also intr) to change or cause to change slightly

5. to lower (a price) slightly

Usage

What is a basic definition of shade? Shade is darkness created from something blocking light or a lighter or darker variation of a color. Shade also means to block light. The word shade has several other senses as a verb and a noun. When something creates a shadow by blocking light, we say that it provides shade or causes shade. Usually, shade specifically refers to darkness caused by blocking sunlight, but it can result from light of any kind being blocked. If something gives shade or has a lot of shade, we say that it is shady.

• Real-life examples: Trees, umbrellas, and awnings are examples of things that often provide shade.
• Used in a sentence: I hid from the hot sun under the shade of the oak tree. 

Shade also refers to a lighter or darker variation of color. You might like a dark blue, while your friend prefers a lighter shade of blue. The darker shade a color is, the more black it has in it. In contrast, a tint of a color is created when more white is added to it.

• Used in a sentence: I prefer the darker shade of green leaves become in the summer.

Shade also means to provide shadow or to shield something from light.

• Used in a sentence: I shaded my eyes from the bright lights.

The slang phrase to throw shade at someone means to insult or criticize them in an artful but indirect way.

• Used in a sentence: Isabella was so good at throwing shade that her targets often thought she was complimenting them.

Synonym Usage

Shade, shadow imply partial darkness or something less bright than the surroundings. Shade indicates the lesser brightness and heat of an area where the direct rays of light do not fall: the shade of a tree. It differs from shadow in that it implies no particular form or definite limit, whereas shadow often refers to the form or outline of the object that intercepts the light: the shadow of a dog. See curtain.

Regional Use

See window shade.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• semishade
  noun
• shadelessness
  noun
• intershade
  verb (used with object)
• unshade
  verb (used with object)
• shadeless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• shades
  plural

Participles

• shading
  present
• shaded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• shade
  simple
• shades
  simple
• have shaded
  perfect
• has shaded
  perfect
• am shading
  progressive
• are shading
  progressive
• is shading
  progressive
• have been shading
  perfect progressive
• has been shading
  perfect progressive

Past

• shaded
  simple
• had shaded
  perfect
• was shading
  progressive
• were shading
  progressive
• had been shading
  perfect progressive

Future

• will shade
  simple
• will have shaded
  perfect
• will be shading
  progressive
• will have been shading
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of shade

First recorded before 900; 1960–65 shade for def. 30; 2010–15 shade for def. 31; Middle English noun s(c)hade, Old English sceadu; cognate with German Schatten, Gothic skadus, Greek skótos; verb derivative of the noun; see also shadow ( def. )

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Explanation

Shade is a break from the glare of the sun, like the shade of a big tree or the shade under a beach umbrella. Other meanings of shade also come from the sense of "blocking the sun," like a window shade, the shade that diffuses the light from a lamp, or the shades (or sunglasses) you wear at the beach. The same is true when shade is a verb: "This hat is ridiculously big, but it really shades my face from the sun!" If you "throw shade," you're criticizing or expressing contempt for someone in a public way.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shade shades shaded shading

One bought a label maker for her lipstick tubes so she can see what shade she’s applying.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

“It now provides shade and a free public green space in South Los Angeles, a part of the city with very little park space.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

In the adumbrated cityscapes and sunlit garden plots, he might remix an inherited gesture, shade or style of line with hazy neighborhood memories of Bursch Elementary or Burke Park.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Bondi’s memo also threw shade by implication at the use of human translators, while boosting A.I.:

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

There was little shade here for miles, and the air was heavy with heat and salt.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

It embeds a photo of Queen Camilla and the prime minister's wife Marie-France van Heel visiting a school in Antigua, both of whom are wearing different shades of blue.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026

Thick haze turned the skies in Indonesia's Palangkaraya apocalyptic shades of yellow and orange on Thursday, reducing visibility to a few dozen metres as wildfires cause a regional air pollution crisis.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

Elsewhere across Italy, different shades of green and brown reveal variations in vegetation, farming activity, and land cover.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026

A corona of cosmic doom shades the horizon of “Miss Wolcott’s Ghost.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

The sun hangs low in the distance, casting their snowcapped peaks in light shades of pink, and their wide, bare slopes in deep blue.

From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day

So, for example, we see a pair of virtually identical 1961 portraits of a man in a white tuxedo, his face shaded with red flecks that are clearly made by hand when viewed up close.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Short came to embody the inverse of that picture, the shaded gloom lurking in places that escape sunshiny illumination.

From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026

What is left exposed is protected with bio logs, then held down under netting, which keeps the ground shaded and damp so new vegetation can take hold.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

Under shaded tents, plates overflow with fried fish and macaroni salad as elders hold court, trading stories about “the old record shop on Avalon” and the Los Angeles they remember “before the riots.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

I hastened before Bessie; I softly opened the door: a shaded light stood on the table, for it was now getting dark.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

The result was a gripping performance enriched by tonal beauty, subtle dynamic shading and precise but never fussy playing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

For Hartnett, shading in a complete picture, warts and all, is essential to making a character believable.

From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026

In the rush for everyone to claim tech-company status, we lost a lot of good shading in many iconic logos: Warner Bros.,

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026

The HSE suggests that work should be rescheduled to cooler times of the day, and that employers introduce more frequent rest breaks, introduce shading to rest areas and provide free access to cool drinking water.

From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026

He rested for a moment against the pump, shading his eyes.

From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Related Words

• blacken
• conceal
• darken
• dim
• mute
• obscure
• shield

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