gaslighted

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of gaslight.

   The lawsuit claims the company gaslighted employees who reported safety problems, telling them they had imagined the leaks.

   Survivors often describe how they were gaslighted until they no longer trusted their own memories.

   Note

   Both past forms share this one spelling: they gaslighted him for months; she had been gaslighted for years. In careful use the verb means wearing down someone's trust in their own memory, perception or sanity. Stretching it to cover any ordinary lie or trick is nonstandard, so it reads best kept for that sustained undermining.

2. 2
   adjective

   Illuminated by the flames of burning gas.

   The historic district still has gaslighted lanes, their lamps flickering at dusk.

   The restaurant's dining room is gaslighted, giving the tables a warm, uneven glow.

   Note

   The literal, lamp-lit word, mostly at home in scenes of the nineteenth century: Margaret Oliphant's bright gaslighted perch in 1862, or Steven Ozment's Germany of 1830 to 1880, a land of railways and gaslighted cities. It stands before its noun and is not compared. Because the same spelling also serves the manipulation verb, only context tells a lit street from a deceived person.

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