moonlight
UK /ˈmuːnlaɪt/ · US /ˈmunˌlaɪt/ noun, verb
Forms moonlights moonlighting moonlighted
- noun (uncountable, also attributive) The light reflected from the Moon, which seems to emanate from it.
- noun (uncountable, archaic) The silvery colour of the light reflected by the Moon.
- noun (uncountable, UK, dialectal, archaic) Synonym of moonshine (“illegally produced or smuggled spirits”).
- noun (countable, informal) Chiefly in to do a moonlight: short for moonlight flit (“an act of secretly leaving premises without paying the rent, supposedly at night by the light of the Moon; hence, any act of escaping at night”).
- noun (art) A picture of a scene illuminated by light reflected by the Moon.
- noun (US, rare) A journey made at night when the Moon is shining.
- noun (US, university slang) An oratorical competition; also, a participant in such a competition.
- verb (informal) To do a moonlight flit: to secretly leave premises without paying the rent, supposedly at night by the light of the Moon.
- verb (Ireland, historical) To make a night-time attack on a tenant farmer not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.
- verb (originally US, informal) To do work for pay (sometimes illegally, secretly, or without paying income tax on the earnings) which is in addition to a main job, often in the evening or at night.
- verb To engage in an activity other than what one is known for.
- verb Of a thing: to perform a secondary function substantially different from a supposed primary function. “Some proteins have a primary function of acting as enzymes, but moonlight by carrying out secondary roles such as signal transduction or transcriptional regulation.”
- verb (transitive, Ireland, historical, passive voice) Of a tenant farmer: to be attacked for not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.
Synonyms
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English moonelight, monelight, mone lyght (“light of the moon; (heraldry) pattern of moons on the field of a heraldic banner”), from mon, mone (“moon”) (from Old English mōna (“moon”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon; month”)) + light (“light”) (from Old English lēoht (“light”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”)). By surface analysis, moon + light.
The verb is derived from the noun. Verb sense 1.1 (“to secretly leave premises without paying the rent”) is a back-formation from moonlight flit, while verb sense 1.2 (“to make a night-time attack on a tenant farmer”) is probably a back-formation from moonlighter.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The light of the moon.
- noun Occurring during or by moonlight; characterized by moonlight.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “moonlight”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details