death light
/ˈdɛθ lʌɪt/(also dead light, deid licht)
noun
1A mysterious light supposed to be seen floating or flickering in the air around a corpse, in a graveyard, etc.; a phosphorescent light superstitiously regarded as an omen of death, a corpse candle.
2A light kept burning in the room of a person who is dying or has recently died. Now rare.
Origin
Late 18th century; earliest use found in Robert Burns (1759–1796), poet. From death + light.
- like a bull at a gate
- like a bull in a china shop
- like a cat on a hot tin roof (also on hot bricks)
- like a deer (or rabbit) in the headlights
- like a demon
- like a dog with two tails
- like a dose of salts
- like a dream
- like a drowned rat
- like a headless chicken
- like a (hot) knife through butter
- like a lamb to the slaughter
- like a leech
- like a man (or woman) possessed
- like a moth to the flame
- like anything
- like a rat up a drainpipe
- like a ripe plum (or ripe plums)
- like a scalded cat
- like a shag on a rock
- like a shot
- like a streak
- like a stunned mullet
- like a ton of bricks
- like blazes