English

A jack-o'-lantern.

Alternative forms

• Jack O'Lantern

Noun

jack-o'-lantern ‎(plural jack-o'-lanterns)

1. A carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle.
2. (archaic) A will o' the wisp.
   • Lowell

     [newspaper speculations] supplying so many more jack-o'-lanterns to the future historian

Quotations

• 2001 — Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age : A Romance, paperback ed., p.218

  He had a jocose jack-o'-lantern grin, big crooked nicotine-stained teeth, and a full droopy dark moustache and wiry whiskers hiding a weak chin. (attributive use)

Translations

See also

• will o' the wisp