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.

At night, crews trained a searchlight across dark waters infested with so-called growlers—low-floating chunks of ice the size of trucks that can puncture ships.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 12, 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

For a microsecond when he saw Percy, the boy seemed shocked—panicked even, like he’d been caught in a searchlight.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan