sheet lightning

See synonyms for sheet lightning on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. lightning appearing merely as a general illumination over a broad area, usually because the path of the flash is obscured by clouds.

Origin of sheet lightning

1
First recorded in 1820–30

Words Nearby sheet lightning

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sheet lightning in a sentence

  • On which a shivering of eagerness, quick as winking sheet-lightning, shook Harris' right knee.

    The Lord of the Sea | M. P. Shiel
  • He turned again to the judge with a smile that played like sheet lightning over his haggard face and inquired humbly.

    The Broken Sword | Dennison Worthington
  • The white sheet lightning was still pulsing in the sky and rising, as it seemed, out of the sea, but I hardly saw it.

  • Sheet-lightning flickers above the mountain crests, painting everything white for an instant.

  • Across the stars was a dark veil, riven at long intervals with the copper of sheet lightning.

    The Californians | Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

British Dictionary definitions for sheet lightning

sheet lightning

noun
  1. lightning that appears as a broad sheet, caused by the reflection of more distant lightning

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for sheet lightning

sheet lightning

[ shēt ]


  1. A broad, sheetlike illumination of a portion of a thundercloud, caused by an unseen, often internal or reflected lightning flash. See also heat lightning. See more at lightning.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.