Very lights

American  

[ver-ee] / ˈvɛr i /

plural noun

1. a variety of colored signal flares, fired from a special pistol Very pistol.

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Etymology

Origin of Very lights

1910–15; after E. W. Very (1847–1907), U.S. inventor

Example Sentences

Twenty-five minutes after the attack began, green Very lights arched over the crest.

From Time Magazine Archive

Very lights, anti-aircraft shells flashed brightly above them.

From Time Magazine Archive

Almost immediately red Very lights went up within a stone's-throw as it seemed to me.

From Pushed and the Return Push by Nichols, George Herbert Fosdike

Anyhow for quite a spell afterwards they were very "windy" and would send up the "Very" lights on the slightest provocation and start the "typewriters" a-rattling.

From A Yankee in the Trenches by Holmes, Robert Derby

Suddenly the "Very" lights went up from the German side, literally in hundreds, illuminating the top of the ridge and the sky behind with a thin greenish white flare.

From A Yankee in the Trenches by Holmes, Robert Derby