lights-out
/ˈlaɪts.aʊt/
lights-out noun: the time at night at which artificial lights are to be turned off, a curfew or bedtime.
Noun
lights-out (uncountable)
- The time at night at which artificial lights are to be turned off, a curfew or bedtime.
- The prescribed bedtime for persons living in a boarding school or staying in a hospital.
- We were all expected to be in bed by lights-out.
- Something hopeless, over; unconsciousness.
- It's gonna be lights out for you, pal!
- Hardy landed a picture perfect right uppercut square on Padilla's jaw. It was lights out for the formerly undefeated pugilist.1990 Feb, “Sparring in the Financial Markets”, in Black Enterprise, volume 20, number 7, page 162
- A decisive play.
- No one could really stop him in the second half and he was lights-out in OHL playoffs.2017 July 17, Mike G. Morreale, “'Super Buddies' McLeod, Bastian look to make mark with Devils”, in NHL.com
Adjective
lights-out (not comparable)
- Done or performed in the dark because of a fully automated working environment. Often describes night shift or third shift work.
- lights-out manufacturing
- lights-out production
Questions about lights-out
- What does lights-out mean?
- Lights-out means the time at night at which artificial lights are to be turned off, a curfew or bedtime.
- What part of speech is lights-out?
- Lights-out can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce lights-out?
- Lights-out is pronounced /ˈlaɪts.aʊt/.
Words near lights-out in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lights-out (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-lights-out.wav.
Cite this entry: “lights-out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lights-out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.