Indian summers

Noun

Indian summer (plural Indian summers)

1. (offensive, possibly) A stretch of sunny and warm, often hazy, days during late autumn.
   • Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer.1778 January 17, J[ohn] Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer: […], London: Printed for Thomas Davies […], and Lockyer Davis […], published 1782, →OCLC; republished as Albert...

   Synonyms:

   St. Luke's summer, all-hallown summer, St. Martin's summer, Michaelmas summer

2. (figuratively) The late autumn of life; a late flowering of activity before old age.
   • Thus, while at times before our eye / The clouds about the present part, / And, smiling through them, round us lie / Soft hues of Memory's evening sky – / The Indian summer of the heart, / In secret sympathies of mind, / In founts of feeling which retain / Their pure fresh flow, we yet may find /...1843, John G[reenleaf] Whittier, “Memories”, in Lays of My Home, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: William D[avis] Ticknor, →OCLC, page 110
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Indian, summer.