Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that lights lamps, especially a person hired to light and extinguish gaslit streetlights.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A person employed to light street-lamps.
- noun Apiece of paper rolled into a spill, used to light lamps.
- noun A torch used for lighting gas-lamps.
- noun The bass (fish).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who, or that which, lights a lamp
- noun (Zoöl.) The calico bass.
- noun A device used to light lamps.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person employed to light
streetlights at dusk andsnuff them at dawn. An obsolete occupation since lights are now electric, most likely seen in the works of such authors as Charles Dickens, often appearing as a symbolic light-bringing figure.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (when gas was used for streetlights) a person who lights and extinguishes streetlights
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lamplighter.
Examples
-
To the cold and weary citizens out on the streets back then, the lamplighter is a very comforting sight.
-
The lamplighter was usually a tall man, a character, and his position was considered an important one.
Fifth Avenue Arthur Bartlett Maurice 1909
-
We watch the lamplighter move along the streets lighting the gas lamps and soon Astoria twinkles like the sky above.
The Trouble With May Amelia Jennifer L. Holm 2011
-
We watch the lamplighter move along the streets lighting the gas lamps and soon Astoria twinkles like the sky above.
The Trouble With May Amelia Jennifer L. Holm 2011
-
Did you not see it? he bellowed at Laurie, our lamplighter.
Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011
-
Did you not see it? he bellowed at Laurie, our lamplighter.
Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011
-
Rossamund Bookchild is finally becoming a lamplighter.
-
A lamplighter moved slowly down the street from them, but it was otherwise empty.
Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Matt Forbeck 2010
-
Wordsworth, rather, hurries us onward in anapestic strides, imaging successive auditors (the apprentice, the newsman, the lamplighter, et al.), and ending with "pursue!"
-
A lamplighter moved slowly down the street from them, but it was otherwise empty.
Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon Matt Forbeck 2010
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.