St. Elmo's fire
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of St. Elmo's fire
Named after St. Elmo (died a.d. 303), patron saint of sailors
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.
Together, we encountered a giant squid, watched lightning and St. Elmo’s fire crackling through the rigging, and caught glimpses of the snow-white whale himself.
From Washington Post • Jan. 4, 2022
Lightning cracked the sky, and the blue light of St. Elmo’s fire danced around the fuselage.
From Washington Post • Nov. 20, 2021
It was hit three times by lightning bolts while the blue lights of St. Elmo’s fire danced around the nose of the plane.
From Washington Post • May 26, 2017
Their conclusion, after some painstaking research: the Utah objects were probably moths known as spruce budworms, illuminated by a common atmospheric phenomenon known as St. Elmo's fire.
From Time Magazine Archive
For several nights the so-called St. Elmo's fire had been seen darting tongues of flame from the tops of the towers to the gleaming stars of heaven.
From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 09 Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig by Various
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.
