ignis fatuus
Americannoun
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ignes fatui
plural
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Also called friar's lantern, will-o'-the-wisp. a flitting phosphorescent light seen at night, chiefly over marshy ground, and believed to be due to spontaneous combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter.
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something deluding or misleading.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ignis fatuus
1555–65; < Medieval Latin: literally, foolish fire
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.
Never did a geographical entity seem so to play the ignis fatuus with the world as did the River.
From The Columbia River Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce by William Denison Lyman
Love is not the offspring of an hour or a day, nor is it the ignis fatuus which plays about the brain, and disturbs the sleep of the youth and the maiden in their teens.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. 9 by Various
XII.298.We are concerned not with names but with things, so that Dr. Hort may give his ignis fatuus what appellation he likes, only why he calls it Syrian it is hard to determine.
From A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener
Silent and alone, she saw the signal-light of the steamer moving like an ignis fatuus along the empurpled bosom of the water—at length suddenly disappearing behind the battlements of the Fort.
From The Child Wife by Mayne Reid
Are we following an ignis fatuus in setting it up as the panacea for the defects of our communities?
From Problems in Greek history by John Pentland Mahaffy
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.
