Very lights
Americanplural noun
Etymology
Origin of Very lights
1910–15; after E. W. Very (1847–1907), U.S. inventor
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.
Very lights, anti-aircraft shells flashed brightly above them.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Twenty-five minutes after the attack began, green Very lights arched over the crest.
From Time Magazine Archive
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They said it bugge or even bwg, but then they were more afraid of specters in those days than we, who imprison will-o'-the-wisps in Very lights, and rub fox-fire on our watch faces.
From Edge of the Jungle by Beebe, William
After the manœuvres the Gamma flew by night over Cambridge and bombarded that seat of learning with Very lights.
From The War in the Air; Vol. 1 The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force by Raleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir
Anyhow for quite a spell afterwards they were very "windy" and would send up the "Very" lights on the slightest provocation and start the "typewriters" a-rattling.
From A Yankee in the Trenches by Holmes, Robert Derby
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.