lamp

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Related to lamp: WAMP

smell of the lamp

To show the signs of arduous, overwrought effort, and to lack freshness or vitality as a result. (Said especially of academic or literary work.) His thesis is meticulously crafted, but the paragraphs are so dry and calculated, and the paper lacks any flourish or style. As a whole, it rather smells of the lamp to me.

the smell of the lamp

Signs of arduous, overwrought effort, with an absence of freshness or vitality as a result. (Said especially of academic or literary work.) His thesis is meticulously crafted, but the paragraphs are so dry and calculated, and the paper lacks any flourish or style. As a whole, it has the smell of the lamp about it.

an Aladdin's lamp

A magical object that allows its owner to make wishes and have them granted. (In The Arabian Nights, Aladdin finds a magic lamp in a cave.) The kids think that old ring they found in the attic is an Aladdin's lamp, but it's really just a piece of junk.

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lamps

dated slang One's eyes. It seemed like the fire went out of his lamps months ago—I hope everything's all right. The poor girl was so tired she could barely keep her lamps open.

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an Aladdin's lamp

a talisman that enables its owner to fulfil every desire.

In the Arabian Nights tale of Aladdin, the hero finds a magic lamp in a cave. He discovers that rubbing it summons a powerful genie who is able to carry out all his wishes.

See also: lamp

smell of the lamp

show signs of laborious study and effort.

The lamp here is an oil lamp, formerly used for night-time work or study.

lamp

tv. to look at someone or something. (The “lamps” are the eyes.) Here, lamp this tire for a minute. It’s low isn’t it?

lamps

n. the eyes. (Crude.) His lamps are closed. He’s asleep or dead.

See also: lamp

References in classic literature ?

So they sat at breakfast till it was dinner-time, and Aladdin told his mother about the lamp.

She took these with her to please the Sultan, and set out, trusting in the lamp.

Breathless, she ran and told Aladdin, who was overwhelmed at first, but presently bethought him of the lamp.

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Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as though it could not bear to go out into such a night; and when I set the doors open and looked down the staircase, the staircase lamps were blown out; and when I shaded my face with my hands and looked through the black windows (opening them ever so little, was out of the question in the teeth of such wind and rain) I saw that the lamps in the court were blown out, and that the lamps on the bridges and the shore were shuddering, and that the coal fires in barges on the river were being carried away before the wind like red-hot splashes in the rain.

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You deserve to be broken on the wheel for the words that you have just made use of," said the giant, as he extinguished the lamp his companion handed to him; "but the king is too kind-hearted.

Aramis seized hold of it, coolly tore it in four pieces, held them to the lamp, and burnt them.

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The Thing had disappeared, and Kotuko was talking excitedly about his power over spirits as he crouched round the lamp.

He wanted to go into the quaggi, the Singing-House, when the hunters gathered there for their mysteries, and the angekok, the sorcerer, frightened them into the most delightful fits after the lamps were put out, and you could hear the Spirit of the Reindeer stamping on the roof; and when a spear was thrust out into the open black night it came back covered with hot blood.

One could tell by the soap-stone lamps in the huts that famine was near.

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he repeated hoarsely, holding the lamp over the open chest.

By now we are running down the passage, and this is what the light from the lamp shows us.

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Then she could make out that he tried his key--that he was blowing into it-- that he knocked it on the nearest post to beat the dust out--that he took it under a lamp to look at it--that he poked bits of stick into the lock to clear it--that he peeped into the keyhole, first with one eye, and then with the other--that he tried the key again-- that he couldn't turn it, and what was worse, couldn't get it out-- that he bent it--that then it was much less disposed to come out than before--that he gave it a mighty twist and a great pull, and then it came out so suddenly that he staggered backwards--that he kicked the door--that he shook it--finally, that he smote his forehead, and sat down on the step in despair.

But Miggs,' cried Mr Tappertit, getting under the lamp, that she might see his eyes.

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On a seat on the hill above Greenside he sat for perhaps half an hour, looking down upon the lamps of Edinburgh, and up at the lamps of heaven.

At last, upon a pledge that each should apply to his family with a common frankness, this convention of unhappy young asses broke up, went down the common stair, and in the grey of the spring morning, with the streets lying dead empty all about them, the lamps burning on into the daylight in diminished lustre, and the birds beginning to sound premonitory notes from the groves of the town gardens, went each his own way with bowed head and echoing footfall.