moonlightnoun/ˈmuːnlaɪt/

• 1

  The light reflected from the Moon, which seems to emanate from it.

  • Meronym: moonbeam
  • Than Ripheus him ſelf adioynd, & myghty moſt with launce / Came Iphitus onto my ſide, by monelight met by chaunce.
• 2

  archaicThe silvery colour of the light reflected by the Moon.

• 3

  archaicdialectalSynonym of moonshine (“illegally produced or smuggled spirits”).

  • Barter'd for game from chace or warren won, / Yon cask holds moonlight, run when moon was none; / And late-snatch'd spoils lie stow'd in hutch apart, / To wait the associate higgler's evening cart.
  • A fast-sailing lugger will soon bring you there though, snug stowed under hatches, like a cask of moonlight.
• 4

  informalChiefly in to do a moonlight: short for moonlight flit (“an act of secretly leaving premises without paying the rent, supposedly at night by the light of the Moon; hence, any act of escaping at night”).

• 5

  obsoleteartartsA picture of a scene illuminated by light reflected by the Moon.

• 6

  obsoleterareA journey made at night when the Moon is shining.

• 7

  obsoleteAn oratorical competition; also, a participant in such a competition.

moonlightverb/ˈmuːnlaɪt/

• 1

  informalTo do a moonlight flit: to secretly leave premises without paying the rent, supposedly at night by the light of the Moon.

• 2

  historicalTo make a night-time attack on a tenant farmer not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.

• 3

  informalTo do work for pay (sometimes illegally, secretly, or without paying income tax on the earnings) which is in addition to a main job, often in the evening or at night.

  • There are three individual rear seats. They all slide, they all fold, or they can all be removed completely, so that you can moonlight as a van.
  • Investigators discover that Captain Ospina was forced to take a second job, moonlighting in a bar, in order to make ends meet for his family.
• 4

  informalTo do work for pay (sometimes illegally, secretly, or without paying income tax on the earnings) which is in addition to a main job, often in the evening or at night.

  • Mr. [Jeffrey] Katzenberg, who moonlights as a top [Joe] Biden official and has worked with Mr. [George] Clooney on philanthropy for decades, reached out to him to see if there was an off-ramp, according to three people familiar with the matter.
• 5

  informalTo do work for pay (sometimes illegally, secretly, or without paying income tax on the earnings) which is in addition to a main job, often in the evening or at night.

  • Some proteins have a primary function of acting as enzymes, but moonlight by carrying out secondary roles such as signal transduction or transcriptional regulation.
• 6

  historicalOf a tenant farmer: to be attacked for not supporting the policies of the Irish National Land League.