greenlight

See also: green-light and green light

English

Alternative forms

• green-light

Etymology

From green light.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹiːnlaɪt/

Verb

greenlight (third-person singular simple present greenlights, present participle greenlighting, simple past and past participle greenlighted or greenlit)

1. (transitive, idiomatic, informal) To approve; to permit to proceed.
   • 2020 December 2, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Sunak focuses on jobs, infrastructure and 'levelling up'”, in Rail, page 7:

     Labour's Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds hit back at Sunak and said that his failure to greenlight major projects such as Northern Powerhouse Rail showed that government claims of levelling up the country were "not supported by the evidence".

   • 2024 August 11, Riley Bailey, Christina Harward, Angelica Evans, Grace Mappes, Davit Gasparyan, Frederick W. Kagan, “Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 17, 2024”, in Ukraine Project, The Institute for the Study of War:

     The United Kingdom (UK) is reportedly waiting for US approval before greenlighting Ukrainian forces to use UK-provided Storm Shadow missiles for long-range strikes against military targets in Russia.

2. (transitive, slang, idiomatic) To approve or requisition the harming or death of; to put a hit out on.

Usage notes

• The past participle greenlit is now more common than greenlighted.

Synonyms

• (approve): allow, approve, give the go-ahead, give the green light, permit, rubber stamp, wave through

Antonyms

• redlight

Translations

to approve

• Finnish: näyttää vihreää valoa
• French: donner le/son feu vert pour (fr)
• German: grünes Licht geben (de), genehmigen (de)
• Italian: approvare (it), omologare (it)
• Portuguese: dar (o) sinal verde, permitir (pt), aprovar (pt)
• Spanish: dar luz verde a

Further reading

• Stan Carey on "greenlit" (2023-08-16) at Language Log