(Australia, obsolete) An itinerant worker, such as a swagman, who arrives at a farm too late in the day to do any work, but readily accepts food and lodging.
1985, Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun,Arrogant, aloof, and suspicious, a “sundowner,†or strict disciplinarian, King inspired respect in many but affection in few.
(medicine, colloquial) A patient, usually demented, who tends to become agitated in the evening.
1977, Jules Hymen Masserman, Current Psychiatric Therapies, page 179,These patients may improve by day only to relapse at night (nocturnal delirium or sundowner's syndrome).
1989: William H. Reid, The Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: Revised for the DSM III R., page 71,They generally occur in the evening or at night in the form of "sundowner" syndrome, as a result of diminished sensory input and social isolation and/or exposure to an unfamiliar environment (e.g., the hospital).
A cocktail consumed at sunset, or to signify the end of the day; cocktail party held in the early evening.
1918, Robert Valentine Dolbey, Sketches of the East Africa Campaign, page 117,The cocktail, the universal “sherry and bitters†and sundowner will have to be retained.
2005, Franz Wisner, Honeymoon With My Brother: A Memoir, page 243,Per custom, we capped our drives with a sundowner cocktail party at a scenic vantage point.
2005, Edward M. Bruner, Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel, page 83,The Sundowner is basically a cocktail party with a buffet on a riverbank in the bush.
