Word.ws English Dictionary

out like a light

out like a light adjective: asleep or unconscious, particularly if this has occurred suddenly and the sleep is deep.

Adjective

out like a light (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial, simile) Asleep or unconscious, particularly if this has occurred suddenly and the sleep is deep.
    • Once she received anesthesia, she was out like a light.

Questions about out like a light

What does out like a light mean?
Out like a light means asleep or unconscious, particularly if this has occurred suddenly and the sleep is deep.
What part of speech is out like a light?
Out like a light is an adjective.

Words near out like a light in the dictionary

  1. out hikes
  2. out hiking
  3. Out Islands
  4. out lap
  5. out laps
  6. out like a light
  7. out loud
  8. out of
  9. out of a job
  10. out of a nightmare
  11. out of action

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out like 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-out like a light.ogg.

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