flashlight

English

Etymology

From flash +‎ light.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflæʃˌlaɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃlaɪt

Noun

flashlight (plural flashlights)

1. (Canada, US, Philippines) A battery-powered hand-held light source.

   Synonym: (Commonwealth) torch

   Hyponym: pocket light

   • 1997, Saul Bellow, The Actual, New York: Viking, page 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, chapter XIII, in Gideon Planish, London: Jonathan Cape, page 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, published 1994, page 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, translated by Anthea Bell, Chess, 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.

3. (obsolete) A photograph taken with a flash camera.

Derived terms

• find one's ass with both hands and a flashlight (vulgar)
• flashlight fish
• fleshlight

Descendants

• → Cebuano: plaslayt
• → Tagalog: plaslayt
• → Tausug: plaslayt

Translations

battery-powered hand-held light source

Afrikaans: flits Albanian: elektrik dore f, elektrik (sq) m Arabic: مَشْعَل m (mašʕal) Hijazi Arabic: كَشَّاف m (kaššāf) Armenian: լապտեր (hy) (lapter), գրպանի էլեկտրական լապտեր (grpani ēlektrakan lapter), ձեռքի լապտեր (jeṙkʻi lapter) Asturian: llinterna f Azerbaijani: cib fənəri, fənər Belarusian: ліхта́рык m (lixtáryk), ліхта́р m (lixtár) Bengali: টর্চলাইট (ṭorcolaiṭ) Betawi: bateré Bulgarian: ръ́чно фене́рче n (rǎ́čno fenérče), джо́бно фене́рче n (džóbno fenérče) Burmese: တုတ်မီး (my) (tutmi:) Catalan: llanterna (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 手電筒 / 手电筒 (zh) (shǒudiàntǒng), 電筒 / 电筒 (zh) (diàntǒng) Czech: baterka (cs) f Danish: stavlygte c, lommelygte (da) c Dhivehi: ޓޯޗު (ṭōcu) Dutch: zaklamp (nl) f, zaklantaarn (nl) f Esperanto: poŝlampo Estonian: taskulamp Farefare: laatɩ Faroese: lummalykt f Finnish: taskulamppu (fi) French: lampe de poche (fr) f, lampe torche (fr) f Galician: lanterna (gl) f, foco (gl) m Georgian: ელექტრო ფარანი (elekṭro parani) German: Taschenlampe (de) f Greek: φακός (el) m (fakós) Gujarati: હાથબત્તી (hāthbattī) Hebrew: פָּנָס (he) m (panás) Hindi: टार्च m (ṭārc), टॉर्च m (ṭŏrc) Hungarian: elemlámpa (hu), zseblámpa (hu) Icelandic: vasaljós n Indonesian: senter (id) Irish: tóirse m, lóchrann m Italian: torcia elettrica f, pila (it) f Japanese: 懐中電燈 (かいちゅうでんとう, kaichū dentō) Jarawa: ʈorči Kazakh: қалта шам (qalta şam) Khmer: ពិល (km) (pɨl), អគ្និមណី (ʼakniʼ mĕəʼnii), កែវឆ្លុះ (kaew chloh) Korean: 등불 (deungbul), 손전등 (ko) (sonjeondeung), 토치 (tochi) Ktunaxa: kaǂnuqaxni·muǂ Kyrgyz: фонарча (fonarca), колчырак (kolcırak) Lao: ໄຟສາຍ (fai sāi) Latin: lanterna (la) f Latvian: lukturis (lv) m Lithuanian: kišeninis žibintuvėlis m, žibintuvėlis m Macedonian: све́тилка f (svétilka), бате́риска све́тилка f (batériska svétilka) Malay: lampu picit, lampu suluh, pelita picit (Northern Peninsular) Mongolian: Cyrillic: гар чийдэн (gar čiiden), гар дэн (gar den) (China) Mongolian: ᠭᠠᠷ ᠴᠢᠳ᠌ᠧᠩ (ɣar čidēng), ᠭᠠᠷ ᠋ᠳ᠋ᠧᠩ (ɣar dēng) Navajo: bee nʼdildlaadí Norwegian: Bokmål: lommelykt m or f Nynorsk: lommelykt f Persian: Iranian Persian: چِراغ قُوِّه (čerâġ ġovve), چِراغ‌قُوِّه (čerâġ-ġovve) Polish: latarka (pl) f Portuguese: lanterna (pt) f Romanian: lanternă (ro) f Russian: фона́рик (ru) m (fonárik), фона́рь (ru) m (fonárʹ), карма́нный фона́рь m (karmánnyj fonárʹ), ручно́й фона́рь m (ručnój fonárʹ) Scottish Gaelic: lòchran m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ба̀те̄рија f Roman: bàtērija (sh) f Slovak: baterka f Slovene: svetilka (sl) f Spanish: linterna (es) f, (Costa Rica, Nicaragua) foco (es) m, lámpara (es) f, flashlight f (flashlait, Greater United States) Swahili: tochi (sw) Swedish: ficklampa (sv) c Tajik: фонусчаи кисагӣ (fonusča-yi kisagi), фонусча (fonusča), фонуси дастӣ (fonus-i dasti), фонус (tg) (fonus) Tamil: please add this translation if you can Thai: ไฟฉาย (th) (fai-chǎai) Tibetan: གློག་ཞུ (glog zhu), སྦི་ཅི་ལི (sbi ci li) Turkish: fener (tr), el feneri (tr) Ukrainian: ліхта́рик m (lixtáryk), ліхта́р m (lixtár) (big one) Urdu: ٹارْچ m (ṭārc) Uzbek: fonarcha, choʻntak fonari, fonus (uz) Vietnamese: đèn pin (vi) Volapük: pokalampad Welsh: fflachlamp f Yami: dingki

Verb

flashlight (third-person singular simple present flashlights, present participle flashlighting, simple past and past participle flashlit or flashlighted)

1. (transitive) To illuminate with a flashlight.
   • 2011, Bart Bare, Wadmalaw: A Ghost Story, page 51:

     Autis stepped carefully while flashlighting the fog in front of himself and Gar.

See also

• handlamp
• headlamp