limelight
Americannoun
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Theater.
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(formerly) a lighting unit for spotlighting the front of the stage, producing illumination by means of a flame of mixed gases directed at a cylinder of lime and having a special lens for concentrating the light in a strong beam.
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the light so produced.
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Chiefly British. a lighting unit, especially a spotlight.
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the center of public attention, interest, observation, or notoriety.
He seems fond of the limelight.
noun
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a position of public attention or notice (esp in the phrase in the limelight )
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a type of lamp, formerly used in stage lighting, in which light is produced by heating lime to white heat
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Also called: calcium light. brilliant white light produced in this way
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of limelight
Explanation
To be in the limelight is to be at the center of public attention. It might make you a little jealous if your best friend's acting career suddenly puts her in the limelight. When a newly popular musician finds himself in the limelight, he might be surprised at all the attention. Someone who's in the limelight is constantly being talked about, interviewed, and photographed. In the early 1800's, theater stages were lit by heating a cylinder of the mineral called lime — the result was an intensely bright white light. The word limelight came to have its figurative meaning of "at the center of attention" in 1877.
Vocabulary lists containing limelight
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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.
“Now it was the Limelight, an epicenter of the downtown club scene,” Keller wrote.
From Slate • Jul. 13, 2023
His pupils and colleagues are about to get a glimpse of their Mr Brown in his other life when he takes to the stage in the Limelight in Belfast on Friday night.
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2023
The just-renovated Limelight Hotel in Aspen, Colo., found a clever workaround.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2022
“That was the first, the most important, thing in my musical life,” he told the Australian cultural publication Limelight in 2018.
From Washington Post • Nov. 3, 2021
Bobby sent Shepherd notes, attended live performances that the radio host gave at a Greenwich Village coffeehouse called the Limelight, and visited him at his studio at 1440 Broadway.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
