DictionaryAI

moonlight

MOON-lyt/ˈmunˌlaɪt/

Verbmoonlights, moonlighting, moonlighted

5 meanings of moonlight

Practice

  1. 1
    night glownoununcountablebefore a noun
    The light of the Moon, which is sunlight reflected from its surface.

    Moonlight fell across the floor through the open curtains.

    The resort offers moonlight kayak tours on calm summer nights.

    Note

    The compound goes back to Old English mōnan lēoht, the moon's light, and has cousins in Dutch maanlicht and German Mondlicht. It is a mass noun that likes by and in (seen by moonlight, standing in the moonlight) and before another noun it marks what happens under the moon, from Shakespeare's moonlight revels to a moonlight swim.

  2. 2
    second jobverbintransitive
    To work at a second job on top of one's regular one, often in the evening or at night.

    To pay off his loans, the engineer moonlighted as a bartender three nights a week.

    Some officers moonlight as security guards at concerts and games.

    Note

    The verb takes its picture from night work, done by the light of the moon after the day job ends. It is regular, so the past is moonlighted, never moonlit, which is the adjective for a place the moon lights. It usually takes as for the second job, as in moonlighted as a fossilist, or in for the place: moonlighting in a bar.

  3. 3
    celebrity sidelineverbintransitive
    To take part in an activity other than the one a person is known for.

    The celebrated chef moonlights as a mystery novelist under a pen name.

    Several of the league's star players moonlight as rappers.

    Similardouble

  4. 4
    second use (things)verbintransitive
    Of a thing such as a protein, to perform a second function quite different from its supposed main one.

    Some enzymes moonlight as structural proteins, doing a job unrelated to the reactions they speed up.

    With its seats folded flat, the minivan moonlights as a delivery truck.

    Similardouble

    Note

    Biologists took the word for molecules with a second, unrelated job, and they call the phenomenon protein moonlighting: one enzyme, two employers. Outside the lab the same use is playful, said of things rather than people, as when a minivan with its seats folded moonlights as a delivery truck.

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    hidden workverbdatedBritishintransitive
    To do paid work that is not declared to the authorities.

    Plenty of tradesmen moonlight for cash in hand and never tell the taxman.

    The inspector found that the claimant had been moonlighting as a plasterer while on the dole.

    Note

    Dated British usage put the weight on secrecy rather than the hour: the work is off the books, hidden from the taxman or the dole office. Because the everyday side-job meaning implies nothing shady, only a setting like that tells a reader which is meant; today cash in hand or off the books says it plainly.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of moonlight apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Middle English monelight, from Old English mōnan lēoht (“moonlight”, literally “moon's light, light of the moon”), equivalent to moon + light. It is cognate with Scots munelicht, West Frisian moanneljocht, Dutch maanlicht and German Mondlicht.