"daylights" meaning in English

See daylights in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈdeɪlaɪts/ Audio: En-au-daylights.ogg
Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} daylights pl (plural only)
  1. plural of daylight Tags: form-of, plural, plural-only Form of: daylight
    Sense id: en-daylights-en-noun-f2OISF8C Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English pluralia tantum, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 54 30 17 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 59 21 20 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 68 23 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 79 15 7
  2. (slang) A person's eyes (mostly as a target in fighting). Tags: plural, plural-only, slang
    Sense id: en-daylights-en-noun-LS3dYRbJ
  3. (colloquial) Mental soundness; wits; consciousness. Tags: colloquial, plural, plural-only
    Sense id: en-daylights-en-noun-zDDEMJHg
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: beat the daylights out of, knock the daylights out of, knock the living daylights out of, scare the daylights out of, scare the living daylights out of
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "beat the daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "knock the daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "knock the living daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "scare the daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "scare the living daylights out of"
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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        "1": "p"
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      "expansion": "daylights pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "54 30 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "59 21 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pluralia tantum",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "68 23 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "79 15 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "daylight"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "plural of daylight"
      ],
      "id": "en-daylights-en-noun-f2OISF8C",
      "links": [
        [
          "daylight",
          "daylight#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "form-of",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              52,
              61
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Jason only hit him once, but he really darkened his daylights.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person's eyes (mostly as a target in fighting)."
      ],
      "id": "en-daylights-en-noun-LS3dYRbJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "eye",
          "eye"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A person's eyes (mostly as a target in fighting)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "plural",
        "plural-only",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              14,
              23
            ]
          ],
          "text": "It scared the daylights out of us!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              30
            ]
          ],
          "text": "They beat the living daylights out of us.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Mental soundness; wits; consciousness."
      ],
      "id": "en-daylights-en-noun-zDDEMJHg",
      "links": [
        [
          "wits",
          "wits"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial) Mental soundness; wits; consciousness."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdeɪlaɪts/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-daylights.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4a/En-au-daylights.ogg/En-au-daylights.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/En-au-daylights.ogg"
    }
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  "word": "daylights"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English pluralia tantum",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "beat the daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "word": "knock the daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "word": "knock the living daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "word": "scare the daylights out of"
    },
    {
      "word": "scare the living daylights out of"
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p"
      },
      "expansion": "daylights pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "daylight"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "plural of daylight"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "daylight",
          "daylight#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "form-of",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
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    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              52,
              61
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Jason only hit him once, but he really darkened his daylights.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person's eyes (mostly as a target in fighting)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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          "eye"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A person's eyes (mostly as a target in fighting)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "plural",
        "plural-only",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              14,
              23
            ]
          ],
          "text": "It scared the daylights out of us!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              30
            ]
          ],
          "text": "They beat the living daylights out of us.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Mental soundness; wits; consciousness."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "wits",
          "wits"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial) Mental soundness; wits; consciousness."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdeɪlaɪts/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-daylights.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/4a/En-au-daylights.ogg/En-au-daylights.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/En-au-daylights.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "daylights"
}

Download raw JSONL data for daylights meaning in English (1.9kB)

{
  "called_from": "form_description/20250107",
  "msg": "Form tags without form: desc='plural plural-only', tagsets=[('plural', 'plural-only')]",
  "path": [
    "daylights"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "daylights",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (96027d6 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.