How to Use searchlight in a Sentence

searchlight

noun
  • Her voice cuts through these cloudy soundscapes like a searchlight.
    — Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2020
  • The searchlight is so bright that there is no such thing, any more, as obscurity.
    — New York Times, 21 Jan. 2021
  • At least a half-dozen boats are scanning the water using searchlights.
    — Baltimore Sun Staff, Baltimore Sun, 30 Jan. 2025
  • At least a half-dozen boats were scanning the water using searchlights.
    — Lolita C. Baldor, TIME, 30 Jan. 2025
  • The searchlight fell upon a pair of heads and shoulders rising above the water.
    — New York Times, 28 Jan. 2021
  • Sailors claimed to have seen enemy cockpit lights, and searchlights across the water.
    — Chris Reeves, The Atlantic, 11 July 2017
  • Journalism has often been a better strobe light than a searchlight.
    — Richard Prince, The Root, 26 Oct. 2017
  • When night fell, Greek helicopters lit up the Evros’s banks with searchlights.
    — Alex Clapp, Foreign Affairs, 17 Mar. 2020
  • Overhead, three searchlight beams met, forming a soft halo of haze, through which the rain fell in silver sheets.
    — Charles Bethea, The New Yorker, 25 May 2018
  • Astronomers working on the problem liken it to trying to spot a firefly perched on the edge of a searchlight.
    — Corey S Powell, Discover Magazine, 7 Oct. 2015
  • Eight searchlights on tops of the buildings will create lighting that appears as a sort of crossroads.
    — Domenica Bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star, 17 May 2019
  • Second, there are the dual searchlight-like rays emerging from both sides of this nebula.
    — Big Think, 11 Feb. 2026
  • Under the glare of his copter’s searchlight, the pilot could see the sub’s hull was awash as the crew clung to the steel safety cable.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 May 2022
  • Around midnight, Landrail’s searchlights picked out oil and debris on the surface of the water.
    — Joshua Levine, Smithsonian, 19 Apr. 2018
  • There’s just something about tunneling your escape, avoiding guards and searchlights, that just feels cool.
    — The Editors Of Gq, GQ, 13 Apr. 2018
  • Two searchlights crisscrossed in the sky and gave the event an aura of a Hollywood premiere.
    — Douglas C. Towne, azcentral, 30 Apr. 2020
  • That’s why submarine searchlights and deep-sea cameras also favor blue.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 18 Dec. 2025
  • The psychologist’s attention snaps our way like a searchlight.
    — WIRED, 2 Sep. 2022
  • The Ferry Building was outlined in colored lights, and a huge searchlight played upon the flag atop it.
    — Gary Kamiya, SFChronicle.com, 22 Jan. 2021
  • The larger the searchlight, the larger the circumference of the unknown.
    — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024
  • CDLs were older, aging tanks fitted with searchlights that flickered their light beams up to six times a second.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 4 Feb. 2019
  • The light of reason makes searchlights and lighthouses; the love of darkness asks us to adjust our eyes and egos sufficiently to see as owls do.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2023
  • During the search, the blue lights of police boats reflected off the waters as a helicopter hovered, shining a searchlight.
    — Carli Teproff, miamiherald, 3 July 2017
  • The intersection was brightly lighted—two searchlights played on nearby buildings—and at this hour the area was extremely noisy.
    — Charles Bethea, The New Yorker, 25 May 2018
  • At the top of the stairs, hikers will pass by a World War II-era underground searchlight shelter.
    — Maura Fox, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Apr. 2024
  • There are jetty lights, shiplights, brass lanterns, searchlights, deck lights plus porthole windows, a waterwheel in the yard and plenty of places to sit on the dock of the bay.
    — Janet Eastman, OregonLive.com, 30 Apr. 2018
  • Kim Il-hyeok turned on a searchlight, and a South Korean Navy ship glided towards them.
    — Mike Valerio, CNN Money, 19 Apr. 2026
  • But the searchlights also allowed the American gunners to see their adversaries.
    — Gary Kamiya, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 June 2018
  • With the flip of a switch, guests can turn on a searchlight that casts geometric shapes and animals across the room, immersing themselves in their very own light projection show.
    — Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 8 Oct. 2024
  • Authorities converged on that spot while the helicopter scanned the area with a searchlight so Schwartz would have to stop moving, according to the sheriff’s office.
    — Jared Gilmour, sacbee, 30 Apr. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'searchlight.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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