light trap

British

noun

any mechanical arrangement that allows some form of movement to take place while excluding light, such as a light-proof door or the lips of a film cassette

"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

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.

"So instead of bouncing the light back out, they scatter it back into the layer - it's a light trap."

From BBC

Alice Chou, a PhD student who worked with Lin at the same institution, was supposed to be helping, but, “As soon as I saw the glow of light trap illuminate his silhouette from the water, I ran back to the cabins to grab my camera,” she explains.

From Nature

“Light Trap for Henry Moore, No. 1,” from 1967.

From The New Yorker

By further focusing the beam with a lens, he developed a “light trap” that could suspend a small spherical object at its center.

From Washington Post

By further focusing the beam with a lens, he developed a “light trap” that could hold a small spherical object in place.

From Seattle Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023