GREEN LIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does green light mean? 

• GREEN LIGHT (noun)
  The noun GREEN LIGHT has 2 senses:

1. a signal to proceed

2. permission to proceed with a project or to take action

  Familiarity information: GREEN LIGHT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GREEN LIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A signal to proceed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

go-ahead; green light

Hypernyms ("green light" is a kind of...):

stoplight; traffic light; traffic signal (a visual signal to control the flow of traffic at intersections)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Permission to proceed with a project or to take action

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

the gave the green light for construction to begin

Hypernyms ("green light" is a kind of...):

permission (approval to do something)

 Context examples 

These matters will be given the green light at the new moon solar eclipse due on December 25 (or 26, depending on your location).

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

They discovered a type of ganglion cell that was excited by green light but suppressed by UV light.

(New color vision pathway unveiled, NIH)

Atmospheric methane absorbs red light but allows blue-green light to be scattered back into space, giving each planet a cyan hue.

(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)

You might earn kudos and publicity now for exceptional, fine creative work or win the green light for a new, massive artistic project, a prospect that excites you.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

However, these ganglion cells responded to green light even where green cone cells were absent.

(New color vision pathway unveiled, NIH)

With publishing and broadcasting projects glowing, if you have a book idea, you may have your green light to publish your book.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Thus, the ganglion cells can integrate both green light information coming from rod cells and blue/UV light information coming from cone cells in order to send information about color to the brain.

(New color vision pathway unveiled, NIH)

Rod cells haven’t been thought to play a role in color vision, but they do contain a pigment that’s sensitive to green light.

(New color vision pathway unveiled, NIH)

Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Now it was again a green light on a dock.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)