Word.ws English Dictionary

give a light

give a light verb: to care.

Verb

give a light (third-person singular simple present gives a light, present participle giving a light, simple past gave a light, past participle given a light)

  1. (Ireland, UK, idiomatic, slang) To care.
    • I don't think I ever heard / A single little civil word from those guys / But you know I don't give a light1976, Brian May, “Tie Your Mother Down”, in A Day at the Races, performed by Queen
    • White man, white man / Don't you give a light / For the blood you've shed?1976, Brian May, “White Man”, in A Day at the Races, performed by Queen
    Synonyms:
    becare, bother, care, concern oneself, heed, mind, reck, trouble oneself, worry

Synonyms of give a light

Forms of give a light

third-person singular presentgives a light
present participlegiving a light
pastgave a light
past participlegiven a light

Questions about give a light

What does give a light mean?
Give a light means to care.
What part of speech is give a light?
Give a light is a verb.
What is the past tense of give a light?
The past tense of give a light is gave a light.

Words near give a light in the dictionary

  1. give a hell
  2. give a hoot
  3. give a hundred percent
  4. give a jackstraw
  5. give a knee
  6. give a light
  7. give a loose
  8. give a man a fish
  9. give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
  10. give a monkey's
  11. give a rat's arse

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give a 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give a light.ogg.

Cite this entry: “give a light.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give_a_light. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.