a green-colored traffic light used to signal drivers, pedestrians, etc., that they may proceed.
authorization; approval; permission.
The railroad has been given the green light on the proposed fare increase.
a signal to go, esp a green traffic light
permission to proceed with a project
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Planning rules implemented in London after the fire, however, are so detailed that seven in 10 projects have since failed to get a green light, creating a bottleneck, according to the CPS.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
The U.A.E. might also need a green light, explicit or otherwise, from Russia and the U.S. that it could receive the S-400 without triggering a diplomatic crisis with either party.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
The UK government will shortly have to decide whether to give the green light to two oil fields – Rosebank and Jackdaw.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
“We never wait on a green light from anyone to tell the stories that we want to tell, and social media has already given us that opportunity,” Tales said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
A second’s relief, and then another burst of green light.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
“So far, we’ve seen no pressure on wages by any measure,” Lorizio said, but any uptick could serve as the final push for Fed officials to green-light rate increases.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
The group concluded that there was a strong case to green-light the breeding program.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026
The reform has the backing of governors from the Andean provinces, who would have greater latitude to green-light mining projects.
From Barron's ● Apr. 8, 2026
If EU leaders green-light the reparations at Thursday's summit, the European Commission will begin drawing up the formal legal proposal for the loan.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025
“Get the hovercage over to the avenue. We don’t green-light until I give the word.”
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
The FDA had green-lighted the design of Moderna’s trial years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
Last year, the federal government had fully green-lighted the annual reformulation of the vaccine by June, in time for a rollout that began in September.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2025
However in 2020 their legal challenge was dismissed by a federal court in Germany, which green-lighted construction to go ahead.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2025
The government has since green-lighted the establishment of thousands of small companies.
From Reuters ● Aug. 21, 2023
The green-lighted windows in its sides goggled at us.
From The White Invaders by Cummings, Ray
There is also a demand for more Latino executives to be involved in green-lighting projects and the inclusion of Latino consultants, writers and producers from the earliest stages of development.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
Ahead of that meeting, Mr Sunak called the green-lighting of the march a "decision that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has made".
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2023
"Given current interest rates, Netflix will have to be very selective about green-lighting content and how they would finance it."
From Reuters ● Jan. 17, 2023
“Stop canceling shows that people like, stop green-lighting so many ridiculous shows that nobody’s gonna watch, and stop raising the price,” they say.
From The Verge ● May 6, 2022
The California Democrat noted an alert sent by the House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker who consulted with the Office of Attending Physician in green-lighting the extended public health emergency.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 29, 2021
Patel’s best hope is that the lawsuit is dismissed early, because it’s highly unlikely that the Atlantic green-lit a story they knew, as his lawsuit claims, to be full of “false and obviously fabricated allegations.”
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
European regulators have also green-lit treatments by Sydnexis for progressive childhood myopia and Atara-Pierre Fabre’s for a rare blood cancer, both of which were recently rejected by the FDA.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
One red flag: It ends on a cliffhanger, and Season 2 has not been green-lit yet, despite the show shooting to the top of Netflix’s charts.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026
In the U.S., even the most formally bold films, like the genuinely inventive “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” must be tied to popular intellectual property in order to get green-lit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
Together they enter the dim, green-lit elevator, ascend to the fifth floor holding hands.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
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.
