flashlight
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈflæʃˌlaɪt/
Noun

flashlight (plural flashlights)

  1. (US, Canada) A battery-powered hand-held light source.
    • 1997, Saul Bellow, The Actual, New York: Viking, p. 32,
      At school he used to do Dr. Jekyll turning into Mr. Hyde, shining a flashlight into his face.
  2. A flashgun (device used to create flashes of light for photography).
    • 1943, Sinclair Lewis, Gideon Planish, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter XIII, p. 121,
      He sat in an arm-chair with his forefinger to his temple, and when the photographer's flashlight went off, he hoped that the hotel had caught fire and that this would end it all.
    • 1992, Adam Thorpe, Ulverton, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994, p. 235,
      […] the flashlight exploded like a tiny bomb, making the Vicar jump a little, which explains why his face is a thankful blur, his deadly role forgotten to history (I have the photograph before me now).
    • 2006, Stefan Zweig, Chess, translated by Anthea Bell, London: Penguin,
      […] two or three bright flashlights went off close to us. It seemed that some prominent person was being quickly interviewed by reporters and photographed just before the ship left.
Synonyms
  • (hand-held light source) torch (UK, Aus, NZ)
Translations Verb

flashlight (flashlights, present participle flashlighting; past and past participle flashlit)

  1. (transitive) To illuminate with a flashlight.
    • 2011, Bart Bare, Wadmalaw: A Ghost Story (page 51)
      Autis stepped carefully while flashlighting the fog in front of himself and Gar.



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