smoking lamp

noun

1. formerly, a lamp aboard ship for lighting pipes, now used figuratively to indicate when smoking is or is not allowed:

   The smoking lamp is lit.

Word History and Origins

Origin of smoking lamp¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

When the hymn was over, the waiters brought coffee and Bull rapped with his gavel once again and announced, “The smoking lamp is lighted.”

From Literature

The sofa cricked in criticism, and Tom looked at it and at the smoking lamp to which the sofa referred.

From Literature

Whenever the smoking lamp was lit—which meant any one who wanted to take a break could do so—my friends and I would pick up our rifles and practice bayonet fighting with them.

From Literature

What poverty I beheld before me in the light of that solitary smoking lamp!

From Project Gutenberg

All around him seemed to reel as he pondered the missive in the bare little waiting-room by the light of a smoking lamp.

From Project Gutenberg