daylight
[dey-lahyt]
- the light of day: At the end of the tunnel they could see daylight.
- public knowledge or awareness; openness: The newspaper article brought the scandal out into the daylight.
- the period of day; daytime.
- daybreak; dawn.
- a clear space or gap, especially between two people or things that should be close together, as between the knees of a horseback rider and a saddle.
- disagreement or mental distance between two people: There's very little daylight between the two senators' stances on the issue.
- daylights, Informal. mental soundness, consciousness, or wits: The noise scared the daylights out of us.I'd like to beat/knock the daylights out of him!
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- Photography. of, relating to, or being film made for exposure by the natural light of day.
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- to suffuse (an interior space) with artificial light or with daylight filtered through translucent materials, as roofing panels.
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- see daylight, to progress to a point where completion of a difficult task seems possible or probable.
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Origin of daylight
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
daylight
- light from the sun
- (as modifier)daylight film
- the period when it is light; daytime
- daybreak
- see daylight
- to understand something previously obscure
- to realize that the end of a difficult task is approaching
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See also daylights
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 see daylight
daylight
n.
c.1300 (as two words from mid-12c., daies liht), from day + light (n.); its figurative sense of "clearly visible open space between two things" (1820) has been used in references to boats in a race, U.S. football running backs avoiding opposing tackles, a rider and a saddle, and the rim of a glass and the surface of the liquor. The (living) daylights that you beat out of someone were originally slang for "the eyes" (1752), extended figuratively to the vital senses.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with see daylight
see daylight
see begin to see daylight.
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daylight
In addition to the idiom beginning with daylight
- daylight robbery
also see:
- beat the living daylights out of
- begin to see daylight
- in broad daylight
- let daylight through
- scare out of one's wits (the living daylights out of)
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.