strobe

[strohb]Photography Informal.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR strobe ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Also called strobe light. stroboscope(def 2a).

adjective

stroboscopic.

Origin of strobe

First recorded in 1940–45; shortened form

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for strobe

searchlight, strobe, stroboscope

Examples from the Web for strobe

Contemporary Examples of strobe

The strobe lights in the cardboard bleachers flash and after a second take Coco nails her walk and gets whisked away for a nap.
‘The Puppy Bowl’: The Super Bowl’s Fiercest Rival
Lori-Lee Emshey
February 2, 2014
Camera flashes from both onstage guests and the audience shutter like strobe lights.
Paris Hilton's Trippy Los Angeles Release Party For Her Single With Lil Wayne
Jean Trinh
October 9, 2013
En route to our Budapest wedding, he was on the phone urging Strobe Talbot to “start the bombing.”
My Husband—Richard Holbrooke
Kati Marton
January 17, 2011
He lit them with two strobe lights, and made these portraits.
An '80s Art Flashback
Philip Gefter
October 29, 2009

Historical Examples of strobe

One strobe of Querto's sabre had severed his faithful head from his body.
St George's Cross
H. G. Keene
My vision washed over pink, and a strobe pounded at the edges of my vision.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Cory Doctorow

British Dictionary definitions for strobe

strobe

noun

short for strobe lighting, stroboscope

verb

to give the appearance of arrested or slow motion by using intermittent illumination

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 strobe

1942, shortening of stroboscope "instrument for studying motion by periodically interrupted light" (1896), from Greek strobos "act of whirling" + -scope.

strobe in Science

strobe

[strōb]

A strobe light.

A stroboscope.

A spot of higher than normal intensity in the sweep of an indicator on a scanning device, as on a radar screen, used as a reference mark for determining the position or distance of the object scanned or detected.