lamp

[ lamp ]

/ læmp /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR lamp ON THESAURUS.COM

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.

Nearby words

lammas, lammastide, lammergeier, lamont, lamoureux, lamp, lamp chimney, lamp oil, lamp shell, lamp standard, lamp trimmer

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

Examples from the Web for 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|DAILY BEAST
“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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST

I put the lamp down (much to the anxiety of the hovering salesman).
Model Diaries: Escape From Istanbul|Anonymous|March 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Soon after passing beneath the lamp mademoiselle vanished into a doorway.
The Albert Gate Mystery|Louis Tracy
And he had a lamp before him, and in his hand a tablet of pine wood, whereon he wrote.
Heroines That Every Child Should Know|Various
Foulon is carried off; dragged across the square, and hung to the lamp post.
The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 2 (of 6)|Hippolyte A. Taine
To enable his friend to read, Tarrant had already lit a lamp.
In the Year of Jubilee|George Gissing
He replaced the lamp with a hand that was steady enough now, and went slowly across the picture-gallery.
The Danvers Jewels, and Sir Charles Danvers|Mary Cholmondeley

British Dictionary definitions for lamp

lamp

/ (læmp) /

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

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

noun

verb (used with object)

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Nearby words

Idioms

Origin of lamp

Examples from the Web for lamp

British Dictionary definitions for lamp

lamp

noun

Word Origin for lamp

Word Origin and History for lamp

lamp

Medicine definitions for lamp

lamp

n.