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Definition of light verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

light

verb
 
/laɪt/
 
/laɪt/
Lighted is also used for the past tense and past participle, especially in front of nouns.
Verb Forms
present simple I / you / we / they light
 
/laɪt/
 
/laɪt/
he / she / it lights
 
/laɪts/
 
/laɪts/
past simple lit
 
/lɪt/
 
/lɪt/
past participle lit
 
/lɪt/
 
/lɪt/
-ing form lighting
 
/ˈlaɪtɪŋ/
 
/ˈlaɪtɪŋ/
Phrasal Verbs
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    start to burn

  1. [transitive] light something to make something start to burn
    • She lit a candle.
    • Come in, I'll light a fire and you can get warmed up.
    • to light a cigarette/cigar/pipe
    • The gas lamps were lit.
    • I put a lighted match to the letter and watched it burn.
    • The fire is thought to have started when someone dropped a lit cigarette.
    Extra Examples
    • She leaned across to light my cigarette.
    • Steve took out a cigarette and lit it.
    • She lit the copper lamp on her desk.
    • The candles were lit.
    • Light the fuse, then stand well back.
    • Bonfires were lit on nearby hills.
    • The procession approached carrying lighted torches.
    • She brought a lighted taper for the candles.
    • He lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta.
    • Beacons were lit on the clifftops as a warning.
    • Children should not be allowed to light fireworks.
    • You need to keep the pilot light lit.
    • They filled and lit kerosene lanterns.
    • It was her job to light the stove in the morning.
    • The Hindu tradition is that the eldest son must light his father's funeral pyre.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + light
    • attempt to
    • try to
    • pause to
    See full entry
  2. [intransitive] (used especially in negative sentences) to start to burn
    • The fire wouldn't light.
    Extra Examples
    • The matches were damp and he couldn't get them to light.
    • It took three attempts to get the gas to light.
    • Her cigarette wouldn't light.
    • If the pilot won't light, call an engineer.
    • Don't return to a firework that doesn't light.
    • The kindling lights easily.
  3. give light

  4. [transitive, usually passive] to give light to something or to a place
    • be lit (by something) At night the hall was lit by candles.
    • a dimly lit street
    • a brightly lit room
    • light something They use lanterns to light the room.
    • the lighted windows of the house
    Extra Examples
    • The stage was lit by bright spotlights.
    • The entire scene was lit only by candles.
    • The painting shows a kitchen dimly lit by a tallow lamp.
    • The cellar was lit by a bulb dangling from a cord.
    • a table lit by a single lamp
    • a corridor lit by flaming torches
    • a softly lit bedroom
    • a beautifully lit scene
    • a room harshly lit with a single bare bulb
    • a series of starkly lit black and white photographs
    • The film is so darkly lit it's hard to see what's going on.
    • Make sure you always park your car in busy, well-lit streets.
    • The room was dark now, lit only by a single candle.
    • The dining room is lit by a floor-length window.
    • The house was dark except for one lighted window upstairs.
    • They installed gas apparatus to light the factory.
    • (figurative) A gleam of humour momentarily lit his face.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb
    • well
    • badly
    • barely
    preposition
    • by
    • with
    See full entry
  5. [transitive] light something (literary) to guide somebody with a light
    • Our way was lit by a full moon.
  6. Word Originverb ,Old English lēoht, līht (noun and adjective), līhtan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch licht and German Licht, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek leukos ‘white’ and Latin lux ‘light’.
See light in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee light in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
previously
adverb
 
 
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