spotlights

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of spotlight.

   A row of spotlights washed the actors in bright white light.

   The festival rented dozens of spotlights to illuminate the outdoor stage.

   Note

   Most often these are the lamps themselves, or the circles of light they throw on a stage floor. The figurative "center of attention" usually stays singular, so one is in the spotlight, not the spotlights. The "showcase" meaning counts naturally, though: a magazine can run several spotlights on new artists. The same spelling is also the verb form, as in a report that spotlights a problem. An article or determiner before it signals the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of spotlight.

   The report spotlights the gaps in rural health care.

   This exhibition spotlights three painters from the same small town.

   Note

   A transitive verb that is always followed by what gets lit or highlighted: a beam spotlights the stage, a report spotlights a gap. Both the literal and the figurative uses need that object, so it is never dropped. Less familiar is the hunter's use, a synonym of jacklight. Someone who spotlights deer is hunting them with a spotlight, not drawing attention to them.

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