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LIGHT UPON
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Find unexpectedly
Example:
The hikers finally struck the main path to the lake
Synonyms:
attain; chance on; chance upon; come across; come upon; discover; fall upon; happen upon; light upon; strike
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Hypernyms (to "light upon" is one way to...):
find; regain (come upon after searching; find the location of something that was missed or lost)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Context examples:
My eyes chanced to light upon the enormous gnarled trunk of the gingko tree which cast its huge branches over us.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As I looked after his figure, crossing the waste in the moonlight, I saw him turn his face towards a strip of silvery light upon the sea, and pass on, looking at it, until he was a shadow in the distance.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
If she had seen his face when, safe in his own room, he looked at the picture of a severe and rigid young lady, with a good deal of hair, who appeared to be gazing darkly into futurity, it might have thrown some light upon the subject, especially when he turned off the gas, and kissed the picture in the dark.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
And now if we pass on to the second point we find that each throws light upon the other.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I will call you early to-morrow morning, and you and I will try if we can throw some little light upon the mystery.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You cannot throw any new light upon the affair?
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then, when I flash a light upon them, close in swiftly.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
If I do but close my eyes now, I can see the light upon his proud, handsome face, and see also my dear father, concerned at having touched upon so terrible a memory, shooting little slanting glances at him betwixt the puffs of his pipe.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was a gleam of light upon me, Trot, said my aunt, drying her eyes, when I formed the resolution of being godmother to your sister Betsey Trotwood, who disappointed me; but, next to that, hardly anything would have given me greater pleasure, than to be godmother to that good young creature's baby!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But his eyes did light upon me, and looked squarely into mine; and he did see me, for he sprang to the wheel, thrusting the other man aside, and whirled it round and round, hand over hand, at the same time shouting orders of some sort.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
