English

A flashlight.

Noun

flashlight ‎(plural flashlights)

1. (US, Canada) A battery-powered hand-held lightsource.
   • 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, Aust, NZ)

Derived terms

• flashlight fish

Translations

See also

• handlamp
• headlamp