amber light meaning: definition, quotations

amber light

noun

UK An amber-coloured traffic light indicating that vehicles should stop unless it is unsafe to do so, approximately equivalent to the yellow light in the US.

UK, Idiomatic Hesitance to proceed; limited approval or permission to proceed.

US, Dated A yellow light.

[In 1947 Chicago:] Then the changing traffic lights seemed to warn no one but himself: STOP. And so waited prudently, though there was no traffic in sight and the wind so bitter, till the amber light counseled him to look both ways, for enemy and friend alike, before crossing carefully.1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm: