Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A lamp especially adapted for use in reading; specifically, a form of lamp for use in public reading or speaking, arranged so that its light is concentrated upon the reading-desk.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Not till two in the morning did I reach up and turn out the kerosene reading-lamp which Wada had purchased and installed for me.

    CHAPTER IX 2010

  • But there was a new addition; a pile of books lay on the table beside the couch, a reading-lamp had been lit, and the end of a speaking-tube was laid beside the books.

    red dust Ryn Cricket 2010

  • Well, she thought, as she lit the reading-lamp and waited for the voice of her employer to request the first book of the night, Perhaps there is something to be said for jumping off into the unknown, after all.

    red dust Ryn Cricket 2010

  • A reading-lamp concentrated all its light upon the papers on his desk; and, sitting by the open window, I saw, after the windless, scorching day, the frigid splendour of a hazy sea lying motionless under the moon.

    Amy Foster 2006

  • He turned up his reading-lamp and pulled out a manuscript he had already begun.

    The White Monkey 2004

  • (Two out of every three houses in Floral Heights had before the fireplace a davenport, a mahogany table real or imitation, and a piano-lamp or a reading-lamp with a shade of yellow or rose silk.)

    Babbit 2004

  • Mr. Gresley lifted the heavy mass of manuscript to his writing-table, turned up his reading-lamp and sat down before it.

    Red Pottage 2004

  • That night in bed, excited and a little flushed still by her glass of wine and the secrecy of the second toast, she lay with her prayer-book opened flat, and her eyes fixed on a ceiling yellowed by the light from her reading-lamp.

    In Chancery 2004

  • We found my lady with no light in the room but the reading-lamp.

    The Moonstone 2003

  • She sat in a low chair under a reading-lamp, a basket of coloured silk pieces beside her, and in her hands a doll, or mannikin, which she was dressing.

    The Captain's Doll 2003

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