daylight
[dey-lahyt]
- the light of day: At the end of the tunnel they could see daylight.
- public knowledge or awareness; openness: The newspaper article brought the scandal out into the daylight.
- the period of day; daytime.
- daybreak; dawn.
- a clear space or gap, especially between two people or things that should be close together, as between the knees of a horseback rider and a saddle.
- disagreement or mental distance between two people: There's very little daylight between the two senators' stances on the issue.
- daylights, Informal. mental soundness, consciousness, or wits: The noise scared the daylights out of us.I'd like to beat/knock the daylights out of him!
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- Photography. of, relating to, or being film made for exposure by the natural light of day.
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- to suffuse (an interior space) with artificial light or with daylight filtered through translucent materials, as roofing panels.
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- see daylight, to progress to a point where completion of a difficult task seems possible or probable.
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Origin of daylight
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for daylights
Contemporary Examples
Then they beat the living daylights out of the Kiwis, 98-71.
The gown was worn by Diana on several occasions, including to the premiere of James Bond film The Living Daylights.
They do so by investing in productivity, by outsourcing, and by beating the leaving daylights out of labor.
One of the major—and frustrating—features of this recovery has been that capital is beating the living daylights out of labor.
He also admitted that he “polled the living daylights out of it.”
Historical Examples
It scared the daylights out of me, more so because I was flat on my back.
VigorishGordon Randall Garrett
Didn't he throw a gun on yez once an' scare the daylights out of yez?
The U.P. TrailZane Grey
If the lady says such another word to me, d—n me, I will darken her daylights.
AmeliaHenry Fielding
Let's have a representative who can see what he is about—none of your goold daylights!
QuodlibetJohn P. Kennedy
Roy isn't so weak that he can't kid the daylights out of you all the way home.
Phantom of the ForestLee Francis
daylights
- consciousness or wits (esp in the phrases scare, knock, or beat the (living) daylights out of someone)
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daylight
- light from the sun
- (as modifier)daylight film
- the period when it is light; daytime
- daybreak
- see daylight
- to understand something previously obscure
- to realize that the end of a difficult task is approaching
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See also daylights
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for daylights
daylight
n.
c.1300 (as two words from mid-12c., daies liht), from day + light (n.); its figurative sense of "clearly visible open space between two things" (1820) has been used in references to boats in a race, U.S. football running backs avoiding opposing tackles, a rider and a saddle, and the rim of a glass and the surface of the liquor. The (living) daylights that you beat out of someone were originally slang for "the eyes" (1752), extended figuratively to the vital senses.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with daylights
daylight
In addition to the idiom beginning with daylight
also see:
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.