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light upon. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
light upon, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
light upon in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Verb
light upon (third-person singular simple present lights upon, present participle lighting upon, simple past lit upon or lighted upon, past participle lit upon)
- To find or think of something unexpectedly; to come upon something by accident.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 75:[...] Yojo had told him two or three times over, and strongly insisted upon it everyway, that instead of our going together among the whaling-fleet in harbor, and in concert selecting our craft; instead of this, I say, Yojo earnestly enjoined that the selection of the ship should rest wholly with me, inasmuch as Yojo purposed befriending us; and, in order to do so, had already pitched upon a vessel, which, if left to myself, I, Ishmael, should infallibly light upon, for all the world as though it had turned out by chance; and in that vessel I must immediately ship myself, for the present irrespective of Queequeg.