Meanings
- literaryuncountableA supernatural, soft, glowing light given off by elves.
No elf-light hovers round the pool.
1865, G. Linnæus Banks, Daisies in the Grass: A Collection of Songs and Poems, London: Robert Hardwicke, page 1423 more examples
His mildly vivid dewy beam Of beryl to diffuse: the gleam With elf-light tiniest figures lit Of shapely moon-fair elves who sit Each on a gemmy blade's curled tip In circle.
1863, Roden Noel, Behind the Veil: And Other Poems, London: Macmillan and Co., page 149"You don't mean it!" The promise had come like a blinding surge of elf-light to that soul so long nurtured upon poor hopes.
1916, Wallace Irwin, Suffering Husbands, New York: George H. Doran, published 1920, page 174“Jam!” said the troll contemptuously and thought of the tarns of Elfland, the great lily-leaves lying flat upon their solemn waters, the huge blue lilies towering into the elf-light above the green deep tarns: for jam this child had forsaken them!
1924, Lord Dunsany, chapter VII, in The King of Elfland's Daughter, New York: G.P. Puttnam's Sons, page 59
Cite this entry
elf-light. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elf-light
“elf-light.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elf-light. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “elf-light,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elf-light.
Source: elf-light on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.