by one's lights
- idiom
:
según su propio entendimiento
- He always acted by his lights, even when others disagreed with his choices.
Examples
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They made that call by their lights and did what they thought best.
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She judged the decision by her lights, believing it to be the right thing to do.
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She always acts by her lights.
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He made the decision by his lights.
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He always acted by his lights, even when others disagreed with his choices.
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She judged the decision by her lights, believing it to be the right thing to do.
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They made that call by their lights and did what they thought best.
Synonyms
According to what someone thinks is right
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase uses 'light' metaphorically to mean understanding or guidance and the prepositional pattern 'by one's X' signals acting according to a standard, so a learner who knows the constituents might infer a rough sense. However, the plural 'lights' as 'guiding beliefs' is somewhat literary/idiomatic and not an immediately productive composition for a B1 learner, making the relation only partially predictable.
Etymology
The phrase by one's lights may come from the image of a small lamp or an inner light that helps a person 'see' what is right. So, to act by one's lights means to do what you think is right.
