ignis fatuus
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.
This misconception of their character would have led him wrong as often as the ignis fatuus.
From Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp Late a Lieut. in His Majesty's 87th Regiment by Shipp, John
We are beginning to believe Magdala to be a fata morgana, an ignis fatuus, which gets more and more distant the nearer we approach it.
From March to Magdala by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Natural phenomena, as ignis fatuus, account for some; the mist-mirage explains others.
From Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland by Scott, Daniel
The ignis fatuus was sometimes supposed to be the soul of an unbaptised child.
From History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 2 of 2) by Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
It is a nebulous, diaphanous, illusory being that vanishes- 18 - into nothing at the first attempt to grasp it; it is a mirage, an ignis fatuus that neither warms nor illuminates.
From God and the State by Bakunin, Mikhail Aleksandrovich
