moonlights

Verb

moonlight (third-person singular simple present moonlights, present participle moonlighting, simple past and past participle moonlighted)

1. (informal, intransitive) To do a moonlight flit: to secretly leave premises without paying the rent, supposedly at night by the light of the Moon.
2. (Ireland, historical, intransitive) To make a night-time attack on a tenant farmer not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.
3. (informal, intransitive) To do work for pay (sometimes illegally, secretly, or without paying income tax on the earnings) which is in addition to a main job, often in the evening or at night.
   • There are three individual rear seats. They all slide, they all fold, or they can all be removed completely, so that you can moonlight as a van.2004 July, Richard Porter, Paul Kerensa, “MPVs as Minicabs” (00:22:29 from the start), in Top Gear, season 4, episode 7, spoken by James May, London, via BBC Two, →OCLC
   1. (informal, intransitive) To engage in an activity other than what one is known for.
      • Mr. [Jeffrey] Katzenberg, who moonlights as a top [Joe] Biden official and has worked with Mr. [George] Clooney on philanthropy for decades, reached out to him to see if there was an off-ramp, according to three people familiar with the matter.2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...
   2. (informal, intransitive) Of a thing: to perform a secondary function substantially different from a supposed primary function.
      • Some proteins have a primary function of acting as enzymes, but moonlight by carrying out secondary roles such as signal transduction or transcriptional regulation.
4. (Ireland, historical, transitive, passive voice) Of a tenant farmer: to be attacked for not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.

See all 13 meanings of moonlight