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brownout

brownout

1 9.0
A reduction of city lights at night to hide from enemy planes
  • noun
  • /ˈbraʊnaʊt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : apagón parcial
  • During the conflict, the city implemented a brownout to prevent enemy aircraft from spotting targets.

Examples

  • Anyway, it's nothing serious, but with night beginning, there could be periodic brownouts.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Its splendor might blaze like the sun in Arabic, but I'm here rummaging for a candle in a brownout.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Consequently, he was able to spend long hours with the Mount Wilson telescopes, taking advantage of the unusually dark skies produced by the wartime brownout of the Los Angeles basin.

    Academic text (1994)

  • To avoid detection by the enemy, a brownout was enforced, dimming the streetlights significantly at night.

  • The military ordered a brownout in the area to keep their operations hidden from aerial surveillance.

Synonyms

blackout
vsbrownout
  • Archaic
17 5.7

A time when people turn off lights in a city to hide from enemy planes

can mean a partial reduction rather than complete extinction of lights
dimout
vsbrownout
  • Archaic
9.9

A partial turning off of city lights to hide it from enemy planes

reduces or fully extinguishes lights rather than only partial reduction

How Dark

blackout
  • Archaic
17 5.7
brownout
  • Archaic
1 9.0
dimmed
2.5

Surface Forms

brownout singular
brownouts plural

Morphology

brownout = brown (semi-transparent) = out + brown

The components 'brown' + 'out' suggest a partial 'lights out' situation, but the specific wartime usage (dim lighting to avoid detection) is a specialized pragmatic convention. [Postprocessing: moved 'out' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Brownout originally described a wartime dimming of city lights: not a full blackout but a softer brown glow used to hide streets from enemy planes. That's why a brownout can mean a planned reduction of lighting to make a place less visible.