RED LIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does red light mean? 

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

1. a cautionary sign of danger

2. the signal to stop

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• RED LIGHT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A cautionary sign of danger

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

red light; warning light

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

visual signal (a signal that involves visual communication)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "red light"):

idiot light (a colored warning light on an instrument panel (as for low oil pressure))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The signal to stop

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

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

 Context examples 

The material had been detected earlier in data gathered by Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer, an instrument that makes observations at wavelengths in the far infrared region, beyond red light.

(Experiments recreate aromatic flavors of Titan, NASA)

A scan using red light instead of x-rays to differentiate between benign and malignant conditions.

(Dynamic Optical Breast Imaging, NCI Thesaurus)

She lay between us, and the red light; and every taper line and spar was visible against the glow.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When he arrived it was nearly six o'clock, and the sun was setting full and warm, and the red light streamed in through the window and gave more colour to the pale cheeks.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Then, suddenly, in the black darkness of the arch in front of us we saw a gleam of dark red light.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We were dashing along the smooth white country road, with the long stretch of the Broads in front of us glimmering in the red light of the setting sun.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Directly ahead of us I could see a bright red light and a white light, and I could hear the pulsing of a steamer’s engines.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

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)

The fat, red-faced gleeman, the listening group, the archer with upraised finger beating in time to the music, and the huge sprawling figure of Hordle John, all thrown into red light and black shadow by the flickering fire in the centre—memory was to come often lovingly back to it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One after another, they would look up, and the red light of the torch would fall for a second on their nervous faces; but it was not towards me, it was towards Silver that they turned their eyes.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)