tubelights

Noun

tubelight (plural tubelights)

1. (India, South-Asia, especially) Synonym of fluorescent lamp (“a gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light, especially one consisting of a tube filled with mercury vapour which emits ultraviolet radiation when an electric current is passed through it, causing fluorescence when the radiation hits a phosphor coating on the interior of the tube”); also, a light fixture containing one or more fluorescent lamps.
   • Tubelights can be very troublesome at times. They flicker on and on but refuse to glow. One may find to his surprise that while this is the case with his tubelight, his neighbour's tubelight in another apartment of the same block is functioning quite well. The problem is more prevalent in the...1986 March, A. Subrahmanyam, “Special Feature: Circuit Ideas: Troublesome Tubelight”, in Ramesh Chopra, editor, Electronics for You, volume 18, number 3, New Delhi: Ramesh Chopra on behalf of EFY...

   Synonyms:

   fluorescent lamp

2. (India, derogatory, slang) A person who is slow to reply or understand; a dim-witted person.
   • And Modiji [Narendra Modi], also being Snarkyji, described Rahulji [Rahul Gandhi] as a tubelight because Rahulji had interjected only a good 40 minutes after Modiji had launched into his Parliamentary speech. […] CFL bulbs and LED lamps have now taken the place of tubelights, and younger citizens...2020 February 7, “Tubelight and other insults”, in Deccan Herald, Bengaluru, Karnataka: The Printers (Mysore), →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2023

   Synonyms:

   alcatote, asshat, arsehole, asshole, bayard, berk, birdbrain, blither, bobchin, bonehead