noontide

1. (literary) Midday, noon.Examples: "[…] I haue bedymn'd / The Noone tide Sun, call'd forth the mutenous windes, / And twixt the greene Sea, and the azur'd vault / Set roaring warre: […]"; "The favorite noontide mess of the Andalusian peasantry; consisting of cucumbers shred fine, bread-crumbs, oil, vinegar, and water fresh from the spring."; "Around them all, Negroes carried gunboats of mashed potatoes, spinach, shrimp, zucchini, pot roast, to the long, glittering steam tables, preparing to feed a noontide invasion of Yoyodyne workers."Synonyms: meridian, nones, sext, 12 o'clock, 12 noon, 12 p.m., high noon, meridianliterary

2. (figuratively) Climax; high point.Examples: "Yet there are noble passages in his later poems: and even the latest have their own peculiar charm of serenity and kindliness,—a tranquil sunset, as it were, succeeding not unmeetly to the fiery splendours of his noontide course."Synonyms: peak, pinnacle, zenith, acme, apex, zenith, apogee, apotheosisfiguratively