gaslighting
Americannoun
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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.
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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.
“What they did is against logic and gaslighting to the extreme.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 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
West Midlands Police was, as Nick Timothy MP - who has led some of the criticism of the force - put it, "gaslighting them".
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2026
“The days of gaslighting should be over,” he called out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2026
There is simply too much gaslighting going on to spend adequate time debunking everything.
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2025
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.
