flashlight

English

A flashlight.

Etymology

flash +‎ light

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflæʃˌlaɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃlaɪt

Noun

flashlight (plural flashlights)

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

Synonyms

• (hand-held light source) torch (UK, Aus, NZ)

Hyponyms

• pocket light

Derived terms

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

Descendants

• → Cebuano: plaslayt

Translations

battery-powered hand-held light source

• Afrikaans: flits
• 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)
• Bulgarian: ръ́чно фене́рче n (rǎ́čno fenérče)
• Burmese: တုတ်မီး (my) (tutmi:)
• Catalan: llanterna (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 手電筒／手电筒 (zh) (shǒudiàntǒng)

• 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)
• Hungarian: elemlámpa (hu), zseblámpa (hu)
• Icelandic: vasaljós n
• Indonesian: senter (id)
• Irish: tóirse m
• Italian: torcia elettrica f, pila (it) f
• Japanese: 懐中電燈 (かいちゅうでんとう, kaichū dentō), トーチ (ja) (tōchi)
• 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)
• Kutenai: 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
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: гар чийдэн (gar čiiden)

• Navajo: bee nʼdildlaadí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lommelykt m or f

  Nynorsk: lommelykt f

• Persian: چراغ قوه (fa) (čerâğ qovve)
• Polish: latarka (pl) f
• Portuguese: lanterna (pt) f
• Romanian: lanternă (ro) f
• Russian: фона́рик (ru) m (fonárik), фона́рь (ru) m (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
• Swahili: tochi (sw)
• Swedish: ficklampa (sv) c
• 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: ٹارچ m (ṭārc)
• Uzbek: fonarcha
• 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)

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