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footlight

[ foo t-lahyt ]

/ ˈfʊtˌlaɪt /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR footlight ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Usually footlights. Theater. the lights at the front of a stage that are nearly on a level with the feet of the performers.

the footlights, the stage; acting profession.

Origin of footlight

First recorded in 1830–40; foot + light¹

Words nearby footlight

footing, footing piece, footle, footless, footlet, footlight, footlights, footling, footling presentation, footlocker, footlong

Example sentences from the Web for footlights

DS: Yes, and at Cambridge [University] I performed standup with the [well-known Cambridge amateur theatrical group] Footlights.

Dan Stevens Blows Up ‘Downton’: From Chubby-Cheeked Aristo to Lean, Mean American Psycho |Tim Teeman |September 19, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Katie Holmes may often have seemed like a doe in the footlights during her marriage to Tom Cruise.

Why Katie Holmes May Win Custody |Nancy Hass |July 7, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
But that was the feeling you got from him, on either side of the footlights.

Doc Watson, a Legendary Picker, Was Traditional Music’s Best Ambassador |Malcolm Jones |May 30, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
I honestly feared that I might prove the superfluous veteran who has no business behind the footlights.

Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes |E. E. Brown

There were over a dozen children before the footlights, with the prima donna in the centre.

Van Bibber and Others |Richard Harding Davis
A bell rang faintly from behind the wings, the house lights sank, and the footlights blazed up.

Vandover and the Brute |Frank Norris
Where the stage is lit with gaslights it is important to provide a separate downward ventilation for the footlights.

Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899 |Various
The footlights were hidden behind a screen of foliage and flowering shrubs.

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 16 |Various

British Dictionary definitions for footlights

footlights

/ (ˈfʊtˌlaɪts) /

pl n theatre

lights set in a row along the front of the stage floor and shielded on the audience side

informal the acting profession; the stage