RED LIGHT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Red light

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/rɛd laɪt/ Listen

noun

Red light n.

An electrically operated set of lights at a road intersection which has different lights visible to traffic from different directions, designed to control vehicle traffic through the intersection. Each set of lights typically has a colored red light and also green and amber lights; the color of the light which is lighted at any one time changes automatically to control the flow of traffic through the intersection, allowing flow from different directions in alternating succession. Also called traffic light, traffic signal or stop light. When the red light is illuminated the signal means to stop; green means to go; and amber means to stop or procede through the intersection with caution. In simple intersections of two roads, a red light visible to traffic on one road will usually be accompanied by a green light visible to traffic on the intersecting road. In some locations the lights may be set to be illuminated in other sequences or combinations; a blinking red light is typically equivalent to a "stop" sign, and a blinking amber light typically means "procede with caution".

The condition of a traffic light when the signal visible to the driver of a vehicle is red, signalling that the vehicle must stop and not enter the intersection; I got seven red lights on the way to work.

Figuratively, a sign or signal that one must stop doing what one is presently doing; as, a fatal side effect is often a red light to continuation of a clinical trial.

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Etymology of 'Red light'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Red light" Quotes from Famous Books

... all their aching wounds, they mended their broken harness hurriedly, and righted their shields, took new spears from the hands of their squires, and set them upright on their thighs, and thus, with the low red light of the westering sun behind them, they stood still and grim, like a ...

— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert

... these parts were deserted, and no collision was really to be feared, the novice exacted a rigorous watch during the night. He never sailed without having his lights in position—a green light on the starboard, a red light on the larboard—and in that ...

— Dick Sand - A Captain at Fifteen • Jules Verne

... garden-room, and, taking an envelope in her hand, so that she might, if detected, say that she was going down to the letter-box at the corner to catch the early post, she unbolted her door and let herself out. She crossed the street and tip-toed along the pavement to where the red light from Captain Puffin's window shone like a blurred danger-signal ...

— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson

... questioning much as to the service to be required. He did not soon forget the scene that followed. The great pavilion was lit by a score of resinous flambeaux. The red light shook over the green and purple hangings, the silver plating of the tent-poles. At one end rose the golden throne of the king; before it in a semicircle the stools of a dozen or more princes and commanders. In the centre stood Mardonius questioning a coarse-featured, ...

— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

... a schooner which they hailed, the gallant lifeboat crew were pointed out the vessel that had been burning them, riding with a red light in her rigging to attract notice. Making for her, they anchored as usual ahead, and veered down eighty fathoms. In the gale and heavy sea they found the anchor would not hold, and they had to bend on another cable, and pay out a ...

— Heroes of the Goodwin Sands • Thomas Stanley Treanor

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