lights out

American  

noun

1. Chiefly Military. a signal, usually by drum or bugle, that all or certain camp or barracks lights are to be extinguished for the night.

2. bedtime.

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lights out British  

noun

1. the time when those resident at an institution, such as soldiers in barracks or children at a boarding school, are expected to retire to bed

2. a fanfare or other signal indicating or signifying this

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Etymology

Origin of lights out

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

Lights out and away we go - again!

From BBC

Maye was lights out for much of the season—there’s a reason he was in the MVP mix—and this will be the first mild weather game the Patriots have played in ages.

From The Wall Street Journal

“In the next four or eight weeks, it could be lights out,” said Jorge Piñón, an expert on Cuban energy at the University of Texas.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Lights out in fifteen,” Manny, a staff person with multiple earrings and tight black jeans, tells me when I ask to borrow tape.

From Literature

It could be a long, slow descent with the lights out on an RAF jet, or a rapid, corkscrew down in a C-130 transport plane.

From BBC

Related Words

• collapse
• departure
• dissolution
• downfall
• extinction
• failure
• passing
• termination