English edit

Etymology edit

From search +‎ light. Compare West Frisian sykljocht (searchlight), Dutch zoeklicht (searchlight), Danish søgelys (searchlight), Swedish sökarljus (searchlight).

Pronunciation edit

  • Hyphenation: search‧light

Noun edit

searchlight (plural searchlights)

  1. A light source that projects a bright beam of light in any direction, generally for military use.
  2. The light from the above source.

Hypernyms edit

Translations edit

Verb edit

searchlight (third-person singular simple present searchlights, present participle searchlighting, simple past and past participle searchlighted or searchlit)

  1. (transitive) To scan or sweep across like a searchlight.
    • 1937, L. Ron Hubbard, All Frontiers Are Jealous:
      A dozen air corps of fireflies searchlighted the spot for an instant.

References edit