Word.ws English Dictionary

chain-lighting

chain-lighting is the present participle and gerund of chain-light.

Meaning of chain-light

Verb

chain-light (third-person singular simple present chain-lights, present participle chain-lighting, simple past and past participle chain-lit or chain-lighted)

  1. To light a new cigarette with the burning stub of one's previous cigarette.
    • He chain-lit a fresh cigarette and flicked the old butt, still smouldering, into the steel ash-can beside his drawing table.1957, Sydney J. Bounds, The Robot Brains, London: Digit Books, page 32

Questions about chain-lighting

What is chain-lighting the present participle and gerund of?
Chain-lighting is the present participle and gerund of chain-light.

Words near chain-lighting in the dictionary

  1. chain-ganger
  2. chain-gangers
  3. chain-ladder method
  4. chain-light
  5. chain-lighted
  6. chain-lighting
  7. chain-lights
  8. chain-link
  9. chain-links
  10. chain-lit
  11. chain-mail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chain-lighting (page history and authors); chain-light (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “chain-lighting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chain-lighting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.