searchlight

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.

At night, the crew trained a searchlight across the dark waters to look for growlers—low-floating chunks of ice big enough to puncture a ship.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025

The task is a bit like discerning a field of fireflies around a central, massive searchlight.

From Science Daily • May 6, 2024

Using sound like a searchlight, they patrol the chilly depths.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 19, 2023

In one direction, encountering events and people from the past has enabled me to construct and refine historical narratives, to shine a scholarly searchlight on forgotten — or suppressed — stories.

From Salon • Nov. 24, 2022

Another plane was crabbing in as low as it could safely fly, two broad searchlight beams stretching and leaping toward the ground before and behind it.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein