lamp

[lamp]

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noun

any of various devices furnishing artificial light, as by electricity or gas.Compare fluorescent lamp, incandescent lamp.

a container for an inflammable liquid, as oil, which is burned at a wick as a means of illumination.

a source of intellectual or spiritual light: the lamp of learning.

any of various devices furnishing heat, ultraviolet, or other radiation: an infrared lamp.

a celestial body that gives off light, as the moon or a star.

a torch.

lamps, Slang. the eyes.

verb (used with object)

Slang. to look at; eye.

Idioms

smell of the lamp, to give evidence of laborious study or effort: His dissertation smells of the lamp.

Origin of lamp

1150–1200; Middle English lampe < Old French < Late Latin lampada, for Latin lampas (stem lampad-) < Greek lampás lamp; akin to lámpē torch, lamp, lámpein to shine

Related formslamp·less, adjective

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

Related Words for lamp

light, flashlight, beacon, torch, searchlight, gaslight

Examples from the Web for lamp

Contemporary Examples of lamp

Another Dem who has been just a heart-beat (or a lamp bash) away from being president.
Why 2016’s Hopefuls Are Hopeless
P. J. O’Rourke
November 22, 2014
“When Tibor died we did a retrospective of MCo., and the lamp was the last thing you saw,” she says.
The Singular Artist of New Yorkistan
Lizzie Crocker
November 14, 2014
That he ends up not lighting a lamp but tangled in the cobwebs is one of the truths of this valuable book.
Slaves In A Family's Past Haunt The Present
Michael Signer
August 28, 2014
So she picks up this lamp and throws it at me across the room.
The Stacks: Harold Conrad Was Many Things, But He Was Never, Ever Dull
Mark Jacobson
March 8, 2014
I put the lamp down (much to the anxiety of the hovering salesman).
Model Diaries: Escape From Istanbul
Anonymous
March 8, 2014

Historical Examples of lamp

Phidias has returned; and he likes to have no lamp burn later than his own.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
He lighted the lamp, turned down the wick, and replaced the chimney.
Way of the Lawless
Max Brand
Yet he glances behind him and shivers, while the lamp burns pale.
Other Tales and Sketches
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Then, mechanically, his hand went to the lamp on the table back of the couch.
Within the Law
Marvin Dana
She was reading by the lamp, and the door into the hall stood open.
K
Mary Roberts Rinehart

British Dictionary definitions for lamp

lamp

noun

any of a number of devices that produce illuminationan electric lamp; a gas lamp; an oil lamp
(in combination)lampshade

a device for holding one or more electric light bulbsa table lamp

a vessel in which a liquid fuel is burned to supply illumination

any of a variety of devices that produce radiation, esp for therapeutic purposesan ultraviolet lamp

Word Origin for lamp

C13 lampe, via Old French from Latin lampas, from Greek, from lampein to shine

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

Word Origin and History for lamp

c.1200, from Old French lampe "lamp, lights" (12c.), from Latin lampas "a light, torch, flambeau," from Greek lampas "torch, lamp, beacon, meteor, light," from lampein "to shine," from nasalized form of PIE root *lap- "to shine" (cf. Lithuanian lope "light," Old Irish lassar "flame"). Replaced Old English leohtfæt "light vessel." To smell of the lamp "be a product of laborious night study" is from 1570s.

lamp in Medicine

lamp

[lămp]

n.

A device that generates light, heat, or therapeutic radiation.