lamplighter

[ lamp-lahy-ter ]

noun

1. a person employed to light and extinguish street lamps, especially those burning gas.
2. a contrivance for lighting lamps.

lamplighter

/ ˈlæmpˌlaɪtə /

noun

1. (formerly) a person who lit and extinguished street lamps, esp gas ones
2. any of various devices used to light lamps

Word History and Origins

Origin of lamplighter¹

First recorded in 1740–50; lamp + lighter ¹

Example Sentences

But this was the last summer of the late century, and already I was beginning to get about like a lamplighter on my two sticks.

From Project Gutenberg

I know a town where the lamplighter twenty years ago was an honest old man of the blind and bigoted type.

From Project Gutenberg

The pavement stretched empty and darkening in front of her, and at the far end the lamplighter had started on his luminous round.

From Project Gutenberg

The street-sweeper had long since gone; soon would come a lamplighter extinguishing the street lamps; now all was quiet.

From Project Gutenberg

Miss Lydia rolled her handkerchief into a wabbly lamplighter; she seemed to have nothing to say.

From Project Gutenberg