moonlight
Americannoun
adjective
-
pertaining to moonlight.
-
illuminated by moonlight.
-
occurring by moonlight, or at night.
verb (used without object)
-
moonlights,
present (3rd person singular)
-
moonlighted,
past participle, past
-
moonlighting
present participle
noun
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Also called: moonshine. light from the sun received on earth after reflection by the moon
-
(modifier) illuminated by the moon
a moonlight walk
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short for moonlight flit
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
moonlightsimple
-
moonlightssimple
-
have moonlightedperfect
-
has moonlightedperfect
-
am moonlightingprogressive
-
are moonlightingprogressive
-
is moonlightingprogressive
-
have been moonlightingperfect progressive
-
has been moonlightingperfect progressive
Past
-
moonlightedsimple
-
had moonlightedperfect
-
was moonlightingprogressive
-
were moonlightingprogressive
-
had been moonlightingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of moonlight
1325–75; 1950–55 moonlight for def. 5; Middle English monelight
Explanation
Moonlight is literally the light we can see shining from the moon, but to moonlight is to work a second job. Get it? You have to work in the moonlight because there aren’t enough hours in the day. Moonlight is the reflection of the sun off the moon's surface — a clear sky and a full moon provide brilliant moonlight. Smugglers hate moonlight. If you moonlight, you work a second job, and it doesn’t have to be at night. If your history teacher also works as a mascot for a baseball team, he moonlights as a dancing bear. As a verb, it used to mean “commit crimes at night,” but now just means “to work a second job.”
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.
See Examples For:
That meant some reflected moonlight from clouds in the lower atmosphere was present, but not enough to overwhelm the much fainter airglow signal.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026
D-day, secretly known as Operation Overlord, was timed based on several factors, including the weather, the tides and the moonlight.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
Their rapid run up has also at times forced state insurance commissioners to moonlight as forensic accountants, teasing out company relationships.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
The audience rehashed its hunches, they circled potential suspects, they stared at a static image of a horrific crime scene, awash in twinkling moonlight.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
The moonlight was very bright, but the Mountain loomed black against the sky, secret and full of mystery.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
Our everyman is Ben Reilly — played by the incomparable Nicolas Cage, making his live-action television debut — a private investigator who moonlights as the city’s only superhero, the Spider.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
Attorney Mark Lanier moonlights as a preacher, and it shows when he’s taking on the world’s most powerful companies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
Except this is a "bogan" version translated by Ander Louis, the pen name of a Melbourne IT worker who moonlights as a writer.
From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025
Sharon Lowell, a lead equipment operator, moonlights as a beekeeper on her San Juan Island property.
From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2024
“Right. I suppose he moonlights as a boxer?”
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
He moonlighted as a pageant coach and judge throughout his career in marketing, tech and apparel, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
When the family moved to California in 1962, Jan took a job as a janitor, and moonlighted as a freelance jazz musician with some fellow Dutch players.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2024
But the very existence of the film, which is loosely based on a seemingly strait-laced community college instructor who moonlighted as a fake assassin for the Houston police, proves just how much they fascinate us.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2024
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said his most nightmarish experience with the company occurred when he moonlighted as an Uber delivery driver.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2023
Maybe Joe Becton, the new director of the Durham Human Relations Commission, moonlighted as a government informer.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
At the time, Oxford had been moonlighting for a sales company that offered welding machines, generators, and other equipment door to door.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Some didn’t even sell insurance full-time, moonlighting from jobs in real estate or other fields.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Meanwhile, he is considering moonlighting as a delivery driver.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
“When I first rode in the Golden Dragon Chinese New Year parade with him, I looked at him and thought, ‘Are you moonlighting as a movie star?’” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026
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
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.
