Word.ws English Dictionary

burn daylight

burn daylight verb: to use artificial light during the daytime when one could simply use the sunlight.

Verb

burn daylight (third-person singular simple present burns daylight, present participle burning daylight, simple past and past participle burned daylight or burnt daylight)

  1. (intransitive) To use artificial light during the daytime when one could simply use the sunlight.
    • O, Madam, no candles yet, I beseech you ; don't let us burn daylight.1819, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, page 364
    • It beginning to grow a little duskish, Candlemas lustily bawled out for lights, which was opposed by all the Days, who protested against burning daylight.1835, Charles Lamb, Elia, page 71
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To waste time.
    • Mercutio. Come, we burn daylight, ho! Romeo. Nay, that's not so. Mercutio. I mean, sir, in delay. We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
    • Brad calls out, “Let's not burn daylight when there's work to be done!”2007, Tom Thunderhorse, Charlie Goodbear, page 47

Examples of burn daylight in a sentence

  • The place was but scantily lighted, for the community at present could ill afford to burn daylight.1879, George MacDonald, The Marquis of Lossie:
  • Said he knows how Jack hates to burn daylight—so he'll be here afore you pull out.2010, Terry C. Johnston, Crack in the Sky: A Novel, page 267:
  • You will find that the time goes quickly, so don't burn daylight—get marketing!2012, Cheryl Kimball, Start Your Own Self Publishing Business:
  • Without anything to look forward to that night, I settled into a very slow pace just trying to burn daylight.2012, Patrick McGlade, Six Miles Per Hour, page 191:

Forms of burn daylight

third-person singular presentburns daylight
present participleburning daylight
past participleburned daylight
pastburned daylight
past participleburnt daylight
pastburnt daylight

Origin of burn daylight

Originally a reference to burning candles during the day.

Questions about burn daylight

What does burn daylight mean?
Burn daylight means to use artificial light during the daytime when one could simply use the sunlight.
How do you use burn daylight in a sentence?
The place was but scantily lighted, for the community at present could ill afford to burn daylight.
What part of speech is burn daylight?
Burn daylight is a verb.
What is the past tense of burn daylight?
The past tense of burn daylight is burned daylight.

Words near burn daylight in the dictionary

  1. burn building
  2. burn buildings
  3. burn center
  4. burn centers
  5. burn coal
  6. burn daylight
  7. burn down
  8. burn in
  9. burn in hell
  10. Burn Naze
  11. burn notice

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burn daylight (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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