St. Elmo's fire
noun
Forms St. Elmo's fires St Elmo's fire Saint Elmo's fire St. Ulmo's fire
- noun An electrical discharge, or corona, seen around pointed objects, caused by ionization of the atmosphere during storms.
Synonyms
corposant corpusant composant Elmo's fire St. Elmo's light witchfire witch's fire corona discharge corona Saint Elmo's fire Saint Elmo's light Saint Ulmo's fire Saint Ulmo's light electric glow
Etymology
After Erasmus of Formia, the patron saint of sailors, also known as St. Elmo.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “St. Elmo's fire”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details