shade

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
shade/ʃeɪd/

▶noun

• 1 comparative darkness and coolness caused by shelter from direct sunlight.

• 2 a position of relative inferiority or obscurity.

• 3 a colour, especially with regard to how light or dark it is.

  ■ a slight degree of difference between colours.

• 4 a slightly differing variety: all shades of opinion.

  ■ a slight amount.

• 5 a lampshade.

• 6 N. Amer. a screen or blind on a window.

• 7 (shades) informal sunglasses.

• 8 literary a ghost.

  ■ (the Shades) the underworld.

▶verb

• 1 screen from direct light.

  ■ cover, moderate, or exclude the light of.

• 2 darken or colour with parallel pencil lines or a block of colour.

• 3 informal narrowly win.

• 4 reduce or decline in amount, rate, or price.

– phrases
shades of —— suggestive or reminiscent of someone or something.

– derivatives
shadeless adjective,
shader noun.

– origin OE sc(e)adu, of Gmc origin; cf. shadow.