- present participle of moonlight.
moonlighting
Britishnoun
-
working at a secondary job
-
(in 19th-century Ireland) the carrying out of cattle-maiming, murders, etc, during the night in protest against the land-tenure system
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.
One of his lawyers has been moonlighting as a clown in his downtime, according to Business Insider.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026
He quit Momofuku Ko but when the chef at Sergeantsville Inn left, he stepped in and was soon moonlighting in the kitchen a few days a week.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
Commisso eventually got a job in commercial banking at Chase Manhattan, where his boss was unaware that he was moonlighting at a nightclub.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
He wears two watches — one on each wrist, a habit he has been heard saying he picked up moonlighting as a high school lacrosse referee.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2025
Ill Patrolman Mancuso had tried a little moonlighting in his effort to apprehend someone, anyone for the sergeant.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.