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Showing results for first light. Search instead for first+light.
Synonyms

first light

American  

noun

Southern U.S.

  1. dawn.

first light British  

noun

  1. the time when light first appears in the morning; dawn

"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

Etymology

Origin of first light

First recorded in 1945–50

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.

Investor documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal said the goal is for the plane to be the first light jet to focus on artificial-intelligence flight.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

Shortly after picking up our dinner at Joan’s on Third, my friend started asking Lynda questions, first light questions like “Where are you from?” and “What do you do?”

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2025

Search teams gathered from first light and are scouring the banks of the river from the ford between Bolton and Abberwick, all the way to the sea at Alnmouth.

From BBC • Dec. 11, 2024

As far as the science images goes, I thought the first light image which we have in detail that has never been published before is in there.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2024

The next morning—Monday, May 13—I left the tents at first light and walked two and a half miles through the deep cleft of the Western Cwm to the lip of the Icefall.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

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.