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lamplighter. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
lamplighter, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
lamplighter in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
lamplighter you have here. The definition of the word
lamplighter will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
lamplighter, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From lamp + lighter.
Pronunciation
Noun
lamplighter (plural lamplighters)
- (historical) A person employed to light streetlights at dusk and snuff them at dawn.
1905, E. W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night:I did the hurdles over two or three garden-walls, but so did the flyer who was on my tracks, and he drove me back into the straight and down to High Street like any lamplighter.
- (historical) Any device or contrivance for lighting lamps, such as a length of paper to be set alight at one end.
1876, Ballou's Monthly Magazine, volume 44, page 590:[…] and finally, laughing and all tired out, they stopped to rest and to think of some other game. They played “Buz” till they were rested, and then “Genteel Lady,” where every time a little girl made a mistake she had to have a lamplighter stuck in her hair.
- A kind of tall bicycle.
Derived terms
Translations
a person employed to light streetlights
References