footlight

[ foo t-lahyt ]

/ ˈfʊtˌlaɪt /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR footlight ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Usually footlights. Theater. the lights at the front of a stage that are nearly on a level with the feet of the performers.

the footlights, the stage; acting profession.

Nearby words

footing, footing piece, footle, footless, footlet, footlight, footlights, footling, footling presentation, footlocker, footlong

Origin of footlight

First recorded in 1830–40; foot + light¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for footlights

DS: Yes, and at Cambridge [University] I performed standup with the [well-known Cambridge amateur theatrical group] Footlights.
Dan Stevens Blows Up ‘Downton’: From Chubby-Cheeked Aristo to Lean, Mean American Psycho|Tim Teeman|September 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Katie Holmes may often have seemed like a doe in the footlights during her marriage to Tom Cruise.
Why Katie Holmes May Win Custody|Nancy Hass|July 7, 2012|DAILY BEAST
But that was the feeling you got from him, on either side of the footlights.
Doc Watson, a Legendary Picker, Was Traditional Music’s Best Ambassador|Malcolm Jones|May 30, 2012|DAILY BEAST
I honestly feared that I might prove the superfluous veteran who has no business behind the footlights.
Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes|E. E. Brown

There were over a dozen children before the footlights, with the prima donna in the centre.
Van Bibber and Others|Richard Harding Davis
A bell rang faintly from behind the wings, the house lights sank, and the footlights blazed up.
Vandover and the Brute|Frank Norris
Where the stage is lit with gaslights it is important to provide a separate downward ventilation for the footlights.
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899|Various
The footlights were hidden behind a screen of foliage and flowering shrubs.
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 16|Various

British Dictionary definitions for footlights

footlights

/ (ˈfʊtˌlaɪts) /

pl n theatre

lights set in a row along the front of the stage floor and shielded on the audience side

informal the acting profession; the stage

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