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lamplighter

[lamp-lahy-ter]
noun
  1. a person employed to light and extinguish street lamps, especially those burning gas.
  2. a contrivance for lighting lamps.
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Origin of lamplighter

First recorded in 1740–50; lamp + lighter1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lamplighter

Historical Examples

  • A milk girl was going from door to door, and the lamplighter was vanishing in the distance.

    The Golden Shoemaker

    J. W. Keyworth

  • Leo is the son of a good fellow, a shoemaker by trade, and also a lamplighter.

  • We watched the slow progress of the lamplighter along the street.

    Explorers of the Dawn

    Mazo de la Roche

  • Each man entered the lamplighter's cabin and hung up his lamp on a nail.

    Nobody's Boy

    Hector Malot

  • There accompanied her three or four women and a man who was a lamplighter.

British Dictionary definitions for lamplighter

lamplighter

noun
  1. (formerly) a person who lit and extinguished street lamps, esp gas ones
  2. mainly US and Canadian any of various devices used to light lamps
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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