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.
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
A few nights afterwards it was there again, and must clearly have been some kind of ignis fatuus.
From Wild Life in a Southern County by Jefferies, Richard
Love is not the offspring of an hour or a day, nor is it the ignis fatuus which plays about the brain, and disturbs the sleep of the youth and the maiden in their teens.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. 9 by Various
Diogenes is not the only man whose disturbed digestion has led multitudes, like an ignis fatuus, into the bogs and marshes of falsehood.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine Vol. IV, No. 19, Dec 1851 by Various
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
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
