What does it mean when the sun is "past its meridian"?

Question

A quote from a book describes the sun as: "the sun, but little past its meridian." I'm trying to figure out what time of day it is in that part of the book, so what does it mean when the sun is past its meridian?

Answer 1

That means that it has travelled past the highest point that it will reach. The sun crosses the meridian at noon (roughly). That's why we call the morning hours A.M. which means ante meridian (before meridian) and the afternoon hours P.M (past meridian).