searchlight

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Ms. Kuin looks for Diogenes not with a lamp but a searchlight, straining to see his influence everywhere—even in places it is very hard to detect.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025

The task is a bit like discerning a field of fireflies around a central, massive searchlight.

From Science Daily • May 6, 2024

Using sound like a searchlight, they patrol the chilly depths.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 19, 2023

Between 2003 and 2020, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing caught almost three million migrating insects from high-altitude searchlight traps on Beihuang Island off the coast of northeast China.

From Salon • Mar. 1, 2023

The boat came nearer, the searchlight sweeping to left and right, almost on course to hit the island, but at the last minute it turned a little to starboard and moved past.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman