moonlight
Americannoun
adjective
-
pertaining to moonlight.
-
illuminated by moonlight.
-
occurring by moonlight, or at night.
verb (used without object)
-
moonlights,
present (3rd person singular)
-
moonlighted,
past participle, past
-
moonlighting
present participle
noun
-
Also called: moonshine. light from the sun received on earth after reflection by the moon
-
(modifier) illuminated by the moon
a moonlight walk
-
short for moonlight flit
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
moonlightsimple
-
moonlightssimple
-
have moonlightedperfect
-
has moonlightedperfect
-
am moonlightingprogressive
-
are moonlightingprogressive
-
is moonlightingprogressive
-
have been moonlightingperfect progressive
-
has been moonlightingperfect progressive
Past
-
moonlightedsimple
-
had moonlightedperfect
-
was moonlightingprogressive
-
were moonlightingprogressive
-
had been moonlightingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of moonlight
1325–75; 1950–55 moonlight for def. 5; Middle English monelight
Explanation
Moonlight is literally the light we can see shining from the moon, but to moonlight is to work a second job. Get it? You have to work in the moonlight because there aren’t enough hours in the day. Moonlight is the reflection of the sun off the moon's surface — a clear sky and a full moon provide brilliant moonlight. Smugglers hate moonlight. If you moonlight, you work a second job, and it doesn’t have to be at night. If your history teacher also works as a mascot for a baseball team, he moonlights as a dancing bear. As a verb, it used to mean “commit crimes at night,” but now just means “to work a second job.”
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.
See Examples For:
September's full Moon is traditionally associated with the harvest, because historically, the additional moonlight after sunset was useful to farmers gathering crops.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
That meant some reflected moonlight from clouds in the lower atmosphere was present, but not enough to overwhelm the much fainter airglow signal.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026
Their rapid run up has also at times forced state insurance commissioners to moonlight as forensic accountants, teasing out company relationships.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
The audience rehashed its hunches, they circled potential suspects, they stared at a static image of a horrific crime scene, awash in twinkling moonlight.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
Zeke went to watch him fly away in the moonlight.
From "Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody" by Patrick Ness
“His name is Sam. He moonlights as a lawyer too so he was prepping me,” says Jane, deadpan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
A brash and confident young earthbending prodigy, Toph moonlights as a champion fighter called the Blind Bandit, unbeknownst to her overprotective upper-class parents who think their little girl is helpless.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
Catriona Byers is a historian who moonlights as a food stylist.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025
Sharon Lowell, a lead equipment operator, moonlights as a beekeeper on her San Juan Island property.
From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2024
Killian, a coal miner who moonlights as an emergency medical technician for the Healy Volunteer Fire Department, had a two- way radio on the Argo.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
He moonlighted as an Uber driver to land the lead role advising the ride-sharing company on its 2018 offering.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
He unwound from the restaurant rush by hiking through Door County’s forests and fishing in its waterways while continuing Taco María’s successful salsa macha mail-order business; Emilie moonlighted as a grant writer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2025
Jimmy Kimmel also received warm reviews in his fourth outing as host, leaving him one away from matching another late-night star who moonlighted at the Oscars, Johnny Carson.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2024
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said his most nightmarish experience with the company occurred when he moonlighted as an Uber delivery driver.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2023
So, I moonlighted as a concierge at the Marriott Hotel and sold lingerie at Nordstrom.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
At the time, Oxford had been moonlighting for a sales company that offered welding machines, generators, and other equipment door to door.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
One of his lawyers has been moonlighting as a clown in his downtime, according to Business Insider.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
He quit Momofuku Ko but when the chef at Sergeantsville Inn left, he stepped in and was soon moonlighting in the kitchen a few days a week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
Commisso eventually got a job in commercial banking at Chase Manhattan, where his boss was unaware that he was moonlighting at a nightclub.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
Teachers, especially a teacher moonlighting as a counselor, tend to get left out of student gossip.
From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
