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bead lightning

American  

noun

  1. lightning in which the intensity appears to vary along the path and which thus resembles a string of beads.

Etymology

Origin of bead lightning

First recorded in 1900–05

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.

It has many similarities, and it's clearly not similar to better known phenomena such as St Elmo's fire or bead lightning, which are well known and understood in nature.

From BBC

Ball lightning is used almost generically to describe phenomena seen in nature that aren't described by normal lightning, bead lightning or things like 'St Elmo's fire', or aurora.

From BBC

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.