dark lantern
- noun
- /dɑrk ˈlæntərn/
- Archaic
:
linterna oscura
- She carefully opened the dark lantern to reveal its light, making sure not to let anyone see it.
Examples
-
At the campsite, we used a dark lantern to guide our way without disturbing the wildlife.
-
Never bad advice, but sad to see another taken in by the dark lantern Chris Thomas.
Blog text (34) -
Where the tall sea grass ended and the path slanted down the shingle toward the beach, he stopped to put his dark lantern down on the hard-packed scree; he dared not take it near them.
Fiction book (1993) -
There was the stealthy tread of feet a moment after, whispers, the flash of a dark lantern—a rush by the officers and a stream of electricity flooded the room.
Fiction book (1992) -
The detective used a dark lantern to search the room without alerting the suspects.
Synonyms
1
8.8
A small lantern with a sliding cover to hide its light
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'dark' and 'lantern' will infer that this is a type of lantern related to darkness or used to hide light, so the general idea is accessible from the constituents. However, the precise, technical sense — a lantern with a single opening and sliding panel specifically designed to conceal its light — is not fully predictable from the words alone, making the meaning only partially evident without prior exposure.
Etymology
Dark lantern is a small lantern with a sliding cover that lets you make it dark or show only a little light. One simple image is someone sliding the cover so only a thin beam shows while they move without being seen, so the name came to mean a lamp used to 'hide' the light.