shed light on
Meaning: To help explain something or make it clearer.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The newly found letters shed light on why the painter left Paris.”
Category: Nature
Origin: Light as a symbol of understanding is ancient. "Shed light on" is well established in 19th-century English.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Éclairer la lanterne de quelqu'un — literally: To light someone's lantern
More idioms — Nature
- blow a gale — Of the wind: to blow extremely hard.
- throw caution to the wind — To stop being careful and take a risk.
- do a moonlight flit — To leave one's home secretly at night, usually to avoid paying rent or debts.
- in the middle of nowhere — In a very remote place, far from towns.
- out of thin air — Appearing from nowhere, as if by magic.
- be at a low ebb — To be in a poor or weak state.
More English idioms
- pull an all-nighter — To stay up all night, usually to study or work.
- the gospel truth — Something absolutely true.
- laugh one's head off — To laugh very loudly and for a long time.
- sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me — Insults cannot really harm you, so they are best ignored.
- drunk as a skunk — Extremely drunk.
- know someone in the biblical sense — To have had sex with someone.