gaslighting
Americannoun
-
the use of psychological manipulation to undermine a person’s faith in their own judgment, memory, or sanity.
Gaslighting is not restricted to romantic relationships, but also occurs in friendships and among family members.
-
the practice of deceiving people through the repetition of a constructed false narrative.
It’s not uncommon for victims of gaslighting to argue passionately in favor of the story they’ve been fed.
Etymology
Origin of gaslighting
First recorded in 1815–25, for a literal sense; 1960–65, for the current senses; gaslight ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. )
Explanation
Gaslighting is when someone arguing with you lies and twists things so convincingly that you wonder, "Am I crazy? Am I losing my memory?" If someone takes your brownie and says, "No, you ate it, remember? You even said you liked the nuts in it!" — that’s gaslighting. This sense of gaslighting first appeared in the 1960s and is now the only meaning, since gas has not been used for lighting for a long time. It comes from a British play called Gas Light, written in 1838 by Patrick Hamilton. The play was a thriller in which a man causes his wife to question her sanity by secretly changing the brightness of the gas lights in their home when leaving her alone, all the while pretending that no such change has occurred.
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.
And maybe let others make theirs, too—free of the gaslighting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
"With endometriosis, most people end up minimising their pain, gaslighting themselves so they don't reach out for help," Abbie Filer explains.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
Theodore Boutrous, a Times lawyer, accused the administration at a hearing before Friedman in a Washington court on Monday of "gaslighting" and "bad faith."
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
“And I don’t want to say it’s disproportionate, but to a certain degree it is. You’re constantly filtering out, is this real danger? You are kind of constantly gaslighting yourself.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2026
The office space gaslighting gives way to horror trickery, slackening the plot’s tension until it nearly unravels in the final act.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2023
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.
