green light, the

Idioms  

1. Permission to go ahead, as in The chief gave us the green light for starting this project. This term originated in the late 1800s for the signal used by railroads to indicate that a train could proceed. It was transferred to more general use in the first half of the 1900s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

green light, the

Elon Musk is still waiting for Chinese officials to green light the car company’s Full Self-Driving technology.

From Barron's ● May 14, 2026

Rosebank, located west of Shetland and estimated to contain between 300 and 500 million barrels of oil, was given the green light the following autumn.

From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2024

The ruling last month that had appeared to green light the latest planned auction was handed down by the High Court in Pretoria, which will now review whether to allow an appeal of its decision.

From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2024

“What do you think?” one person with knowledge of the situation but unauthorized to speak publicly quipped rhetorically, when asked how long it took for ownership to green light the offer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2023

It was a pale green light, the kind you see from one of those snap-activated glow sticks; it lit the stairwell, and then everything was suddenly dark again.

From "Winger" by Andrew Smith