deadlight meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

deadlight

noun

Etymology From dead + light.

Nautical, Transport A strong (often wooden) shutter fitted over a porthole, that can be closed in bad weather to keep water out and discourage the glass windows from breaking.

Nautical, Transport A deck prism, a device to allow light into the cabin of boat through the deck.

Archaic, Figuratively An eye.

Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the slip before my blessed deadlights!1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

Archaic, Figuratively An eyelid.

He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC: