In early use: St Elmo's fire. In later use: a globe of ball lightning. Obsolete.

lightning visible in the form of a zigzag or branching line across the sky; (now literary) a lightning flash of this form.ⓘ

lightning (usually sheet lightning) seen in the absence of audible thunder, typically during hot weather; a flash of this; also figurative and in…

Fire or flame in the shape of a ball; esp. applied descriptively to luminous meteors and ball lightning. Also spec.: the fireball resulting from the…

(a) the electric phenomenon called a fire-ball or globe-lightning; (b) poetic a thunderbolt; (c) the common red poppy (Papaver rhœas) (dialect).

lightning in a sheet-like form due to reflection by the clouds.

In various specific uses (wild often implying ‘natural, not artificially produced’, or ‘out of… Lightning; esp. sheet lightning without audible…

summer lightning, occurring in hot weather.

= ball lightning n. at ball, n.1 compounds 2.

lightning with multiple strokes in which strong winds blow each successive stroke away from the previous one, producing a ribbon-like sheet of light.

bead lightning (see bead, n. compounds 2).

(see quot. 1899); cf. beaded lightning n. at beaded, adj. compounds.