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ˈstar-light, ˈstarlight, n. and a.
1. a. The light of the stars; occas. the time when the stars shine.
c1374Chaucer Boeth. ii. met. iii. (1868) 39 Þan þe sterre ydimmyd paleþ hir white cheres, by þe flamus of þe sonne þat ouer comeþ þe sterre lyȝt. 1390Gower Conf. II. 259 Upon a nyht, Whan ther was noght bot sterreliht. 1565Cooper Thesaurus, s.v. Tenebræ, The sterre light did put away darkenesse. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 29 By fountaine cleere, or spangled star-light sheene. 1634Milton Comus 308 In such a scant allowance of Star-light. a1637B. Jonson Sad Sheph. ii. iii, A Gypsan Ladie..Wrought it by Moone-shine for mee, and Star-light. 1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 90 An hardy and labouring clergy..that can foot it five or six miles in the dirt, and preach till star-light for as many shillings. 1799Ht. Lee Canterb. T., Old Woman's T. (ed. 2) I. 387 They at length emerged to star-light and the open country. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxix. 99 At work, from the grey of the morning till starlight. 1914Blackw. Mag. Aug. 176/2 He went all night to the southward by starlight only.
b. transf. and fig.
1530Tindale Prol. Levit., And though also that all the ceremonies and sacrifices haue as it were a sterrelyght of Christ, yet some there be that haue as it were the lighte of the brode daye a litle before the sonne risinge. 1600Fairfax Tasso ix. lxxxvi, He saw waxe dim the starre-light of his eies.
2. A cluster of artificial lights arranged in the form of a star.
1884Baptist Yr.-Bk. 357 Star-lights and brackets supply good artificial lighting.
3. a. attrib. and adj. Of or pertaining to starlight; bright as the stars; appearing or accompanied by starlight; lighted by the stars. [? Partly f. light a.2]
1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 375/2 A cleare and starre⁓light night. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 174 It is due North from Spahawn, as we observed in our star-light travel. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 548 A Star-light Evening, and a Morning fair. 1803Visct. Strangford Poems of Camoens, Madrigal (1810) 41 Starlight eyes, and heaving snows. 1819Byron Juan ii. clxxxviii, The silent ocean, and the starlight bay. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xvii. 163 The night was clear starlight. 1869Dunkin Midnight Sky 22 These two stars being never absent from our view on starlight nights.
b. Special Comb.: starlight scope Mil., a device incorporating an image intensifier for use as a gun sight or telescope when there is little light.
1969I. Kemp Brit. G.I. in Vietnam vii. 146 The North Vietnamese found two very valuable, expensive, and secret items of equipment, known as ‘Starlightscopes’. The Starlightscope is an infra-red telescope for observation at night, which can also be fixed to a rifle for shooting in the dark. 1973T. O'Brien If I die in Combat Zone iv. 28 Look at this... It's a starlight scope... Supposed to let you see in the dark. 1977Time 23 May 33/2 There's the 90-mm. recoilless rifle with a ‘starlight’ scope for enhanced visibility. |