sheet lightning

Definition

A broad flash of lightning, with no visible bolt, due to reflection.

Example Sentences

• "In most very warm days in summer the thermometer stands above 70 degrees on the scale of Fahrenheit, about the centre of the county; in the summer of 1811, it stood repeatedly above 80°; and on the 25th of May, 1807, during the time when the sheet lightning of tropical regions appeared, about three in the afternoon, it stood at 92° in the shade within three miles of Moffat!"
• "It probably belongs to the class we are accustomed to call sheet lightnings, for these are by far the most frequent in an ordinary storm."
• "He was silent for a long time, redreaming the dreams that he had dreamed eight years ago, but through them all ran, as sheet-lightning through golden cloud, the light of Mrs. Hauksbee's violet eyes."