SEE THE LIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does see the light mean? 

• SEE THE LIGHT (verb)
  The verb SEE THE LIGHT has 1 sense:

1. change for the better

  Familiarity information: SEE THE LIGHT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEE THE LIGHT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Change for the better

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

reform; see the light; straighten out

Context example:

the habitual cheater finally saw the light

Hypernyms (to "see the light" is one way to...):

ameliorate; better; improve; meliorate (get better)

Verb group:

reclaim; rectify; reform; regenerate (bring, lead, or force to abandon a wrong or evil course of life, conduct, and adopt a right one)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

“It did happen to see the light in a newspaper,” I replied, “but not because the magazine editors had been denied a glimpse at it.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

If I do but close my eyes now, I can see the light upon his proud, handsome face, and see also my dear father, concerned at having touched upon so terrible a memory, shooting little slanting glances at him betwixt the puffs of his pipe.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It got thicker and thicker, till it seemed as if it became concentrated into a sort of pillar of cloud in the room, through the top of which I could see the light of the gas shining like a red eye.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“It's like you did, Mas'r Davy. Not that I know'd then, she was theer, sir, but along of her creeping soon arterwards under Em'ly's little winder, when she see the light come, and whispering “Em'ly, Em'ly, for Christ's sake, have a woman's heart towards me. I was once like you!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I must see the light of the unsnuffed candle wane on my employment; the shadows darken on the wrought, antique tapestry round me, and grow black under the hangings of the vast old bed, and quiver strangely over the doors of a great cabinet opposite—whose front, divided into twelve panels, bore, in grim design, the heads of the twelve apostles, each enclosed in its separate panel as in a frame; while above them at the top rose an ebon crucifix and a dying Christ.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)