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  • green light
    green light
    noun
    a green-colored traffic light used to signal drivers, pedestrians, etc., that they may proceed.
  • green-light
    green-light
    verb (used with object)
    to give permission to proceed; authorize.
Synonyms

green light

1 American  

noun

  1. a green-colored traffic light used to signal drivers, pedestrians, etc., that they may proceed.

  2. authorization; approval; permission.

    The railroad has been given the green light on the proposed fare increase.
green-light 2 American  

verb (used with object)

green-lighted, green-lit, green-lighting

  1. to give permission to proceed; authorize.

    The renovation project was green-lighted by the board of directors.
green light British  

noun

  1. a signal to go, esp a green traffic light

  2. permission to proceed with a project

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to permit (a project, etc) to proceed

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Christopher said that he and his fellow leads bonded during the process of working on the script once the production was given the green light.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 22, 2026

Lynas got the green light last month from the Malaysian government to process rare earths there for another 10 years.

From Barron's • Apr. 22, 2026

And prior to 2026, the bull market in U.S. stocks had been doing just fine even without the Dow Theory’s green light.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 21, 2026

In our video call with Mr Explosive, he appears silhouetted and flanked by red and green light, the colours of the Iranian flag.

From BBC • Apr. 11, 2026

To our jaded twenty-first-century ears, Charlie Christian’s solo on ‘Seven Come Eleven’ may not seem all that earth-shattering, but to musicians of the 1940s it was a green light.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.