white lightning

See synonyms for white lightning on Thesaurus.com
nounChiefly Midland and Southern U.S.

Origin of white lightning

1
An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

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

How to use white lightning in a sentence

  • The Maid bent her head in gracious acknowledgment, swept through and was off to the river like a flash of white lightning.

    A Heroine of France | Evelyn Everett-Green
  • The outer aspects of these members were decorated with white zigzag streaks, to indicate the white lightning.

  • Looking up through the cracks in the little steeple, they could see flash after flash of continuous white lightning.

  • The shop-woman looked up hastily, caught sight of two blazing eyes, and a face like white lightning, and quailed.

    Hildegarde's Harvest | Laura E. Richards
  • I will shiver their ship into little pieces with a bolt of white lightning as soon as they get out to sea.'

    The Odyssey | Homer