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Glite Dictionary
🧠 Manipulating reality 🧠 Manipulative behavior
gaslighting

gaslighting

8.9
Making someone doubt their memory or feelings
  • adjective
  • /ˈɡæsˌlaɪtɪŋ/
  • Offensive
translation icon : manipulador psicológico
  • Her gaslighting tactics made him question his own memories and feel confused about the events that transpired.

He didn't find this person in the week, but he being the gaslighting horrible man that he was, he denied it.

Examples

  • He didn't find this person in the week, but he being the gaslighting horrible man that he was, he denied it.

    DoctorRamani

  • He didn't find this person in the week, but he being the gaslighting horrible man that he was, he denied it.

    DoctorRamani

  • The gaslighting in their relationship left her doubting her own feelings and perceptions.

  • He realized that his friend's gaslighting was affecting his mental health, making it hard for him to trust himself.

Surface Forms

gaslighting positive

Morphology

gaslighting = gaslight (opaque) = gas + light + ing

Forming a present-participial adjective by adding '-ing' to the verb 'gaslight' is a regular, transparent morphological step.

Etymology

Gaslighting comes from the same play Gas Light, where a husband slowly dimmed the gas lights and lied about it to make his wife doubt herself and lose confidence. So gaslighting as an adjective describes behavior that makes someone doubt their 'memories', 'feelings', or 'what they saw'.