ˈdead-light
[In sense 1, f. dead a. 15; in 3, f. dead n., or Sc. form of death-light.]
1. Naut. A strong wooden or iron shutter fixed outside a cabin-window or port-hole in a storm, to prevent water from entering.
| 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 3 A sea struck us..and drove in one of our quarter and one of our stern dead lights. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxvi, The water..had burst into the cabin through the windows..for the dead lights..had not yet been shipped. a 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg., Bros. Birchington, The dead-lights are letting the spray and the rain in. |
2. A skylight not made to open.
| 1882 Trade Catalogue, Skylights for which we have no corresponding sizes of Deadlights. |
3. A luminous appearance seen over putrescent bodies, in grave-yards, etc.; a ‘corpse-light’ or ‘corpse-candle’. Sc.
| 1813 Hogg Queen's Wake Introd., Dead⁓lights glimmering through the night. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. ix. (1860) 85/2 The many floating Highland stories of spectral dead-lights and wild supernatural sounds, seen and heard by nights in lonely places of sepulture. |