St. Elmo's fires

A form of St. Elmo's fire — An electrical discharge, or corona, seen around pointed objects, caused by ionization of the atmosphere during storms.

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Meanings

noun
  1. pluralplural of St. Elmo's fire

    St. Elmo's fires are extremely frequent at the Pic du Midi on lightning-conductors.

    1936, Napier Shaw, Manual of Meteorology, page 32
    2 more examples

    As to its appearance upon the masts of ships, Forbin relates that in the year 1696, during a terribly stormy night, near the Balearic Isles, he saw no less than thirty St. Elmo's fires in different parts of the ship, one of them being on one of the sails of the mainmast.

    1881, J. Minshull, transl., Land, Sea and Sky, or, Wonders of Life and Nature, page 366

    Referring to the superstition on the part of the sailors as regards the St. Elmo's fires, Lieutenant Bassett, in his book called "Legends and Superstitions of the Sea," says...

    1907, Edwin J. Houston, The wonder book of the atmosphere, page 291
Cite this entry
APA

St. Elmo's fires. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/St.%20Elmo's%20fires

MLA

“St. Elmo's fires.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/St.%20Elmo's%20fires. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “St. Elmo's fires,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/St.%20Elmo's%20fires.

Source: St. Elmo's fires on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.