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moonlight

[moon-lahyt]
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noun
  1. the light of the moon.
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adjective
  1. pertaining to moonlight.
  2. illuminated by moonlight.
  3. occurring by moonlight, or at night.
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verb (used without object), moon·light·ed, moon·light·ing.
  1. to work at an additional job after one's regular, full-time employment, as at night.
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Origin of moonlight

1325–75; 1950–55 for def 5; Middle English monelight
Related formsmoon·light·er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

cheatinguntrueillicitextracurricularpurloinfilchswipepursuemanagedrivetrytoilstriverecreationdiversionsubsidiaryhobbydistractionmoonlightingcop

Examples from the Web for moonlighting

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • If the Limerick moonlighters must have been tried in Cork there would have been no moonlighting.

    Ireland as It Is

    Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

  • But did you ever hear of a youngster who'd sit behind the door and suck his thumbs while there was moonlighting in the air?

    The Pioneers

    Katharine Susannah Prichard

  • My journey to Galway was undertaken for the purpose of hanging four men who were condemned to death for moonlighting.

British Dictionary definitions for moonlighting

moonlighting

noun
  1. working at a secondary job
  2. (in 19th-century Ireland) the carrying out of cattle-maiming, murders, etc, during the night in protest against the land-tenure system
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moonlight

noun
  1. Also called: moonshine light from the sun received on earth after reflection by the moon
  2. (modifier) illuminated by the moona moonlight walk
  3. short for moonlight flit
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verb -lights, -lighting or -lighted
  1. (intr) informal to work at a secondary job, esp at night, and often illegitimately
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Derived Formsmoonlighter, noun
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 moonlighting

moonlight

v.

"hold a second job, especially at night," 1957 (implied in moonlighting), from moonlighter (1954), from the notion of working by the light of the moon; see moonlight (n.). Related: Moonlighting. Earlier the word had been used to mean "commit crimes at night" (1882).

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moonlight

n.

"light of the moon," mid-14c., from moon (n.) + light (n.).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper