💡 Gas-powered light 🧠 To confuse mentally

to gaslight

3 8.6

To make someone doubt what they remember or feel

verb
/ˈɡæsˌlaɪt/

Offensive

: manipular

She realized he was trying to gaslight her into believing she was imagining things.
it's just gaslighting

If he's gaslighting you, break up with him.

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Examples

She's gaslighting you.

A Simple Favor (2018)
They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.

Megyn Kelly
So, you want us to gaslight your boss?

Collateral Beauty (2016)
Do not gaslight me, Matthew.

Late Checkout (2023)
- Don't you dare let him gaslight you.

Purple Violets (2007)
If he's gaslighting you, break up with him.

Hot Mess with Alix Earle
OK, one, don't gaslight someone into thinking they're crazy.
It's cruel to gaslight someone and make them doubt their own memories.
After months of gaslighting, he finally admitted he had been lying all along.

Synonyms

to deceive

vsto gaslight

270 3.9

To make someone believe something that is not true to get an advantage

focuses instead on making the person doubt their own perceptions and memory

to brainwash

vsto gaslight

118 7.3

To make someone accept different beliefs using pressure and tricks

uses manipulation that causes self doubt about perception and sanity rather than belief change

Antonyms

to reassure

163 3.4

To make someone feel less worried and more confident

to validate

Formal

87 3.9

To make something officially acceptable by showing proof

How Manipulative

to brainwash

118 7.3

to gaslight

Offensive

3 8.6

to manipulate

382 6.1

to mislead

87 3.9

to confuse

266 1.9

Surface Forms

gaslight infinitive

gaslighted past

gaslighted past participle

gaslighting present participle

gaslights third person singular

Morphology

gaslight = gaslight (opaque) = gas + light

Although the form is historically connected to the noun 'gaslight', the verb meaning 'to manipulate someone into doubting their perception' is not compositionally predictable from 'gas' + 'light'.

Etymology

The verb gaslight comes from a play and film called 'Gas Light', where a husband dimmed the home's gas lights and then denied the changes to make his wife doubt herself. So to gaslight someone today is 'to make them doubt their own memory or mind'.