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

In one direction, encountering events and people from the past has enabled me to construct and refine historical narratives, to shine a scholarly searchlight on forgotten — or suppressed — stories.

From Salon • Nov. 24, 2022

Dialectical materialism seemed to offer both a searchlight illuminating the dark night of racial oppression and a tool that could be used to end it.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela