Meanings
- historicalobsoleteuncountableAn illness or obstructive condition of the larynx, trachea, or lungs, found as a cause of death on bills of mortality in the 16- and 1700s; possibly croup.
John Graunt reflected on the increases in death from particular diseases between 1634 and 1660: […] That the Rising of the lights (supposed in most Cases to be the Fits of the Mother) have also encreased in thirty years, […]
c. 1660-1674, John Graunt, quoted in 2008, David Brandon, Alan Brooke, London: City of the Dead, The History Press1 more example
The December 1759 edition, for example, offers a bleak perspective on an underside of the Enlightenment, Of the 19514 deaths on the London list, […] the causes of death included these: bloody flux, twisting of the guts, evil, French pox, rising of the lights, ...
2006, Nigel Starck, Life After Death: The Art of the Obituary, Melbourne Univ. Publishing, →ISBN, page 19
Origin
From lights (“lungs”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
rising of the lights. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rising%20of%20the%20lights
“rising of the lights.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rising%20of%20the%20lights. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rising of the lights,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rising%20of%20the%20lights.
Source: rising of the lights on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.