candle
A stick of wax with a string in the middle that you burn to get light or a nice smell.
A shaped piece of wax or similar material with a wick in the middle that is burned to give light, scent, or decoration.
To shine a strong light through an egg to see inside it and check if it is good or if a chick is growing.
To examine an egg by shining a strong light through it in order to check its development, freshness, or quality.
To put a special hollow candle in someone’s ear and burn it, because you think it will pull out earwax or clean the ear.
To place a lit hollow candle in the outer ear as an alternative treatment, usually intended to remove earwax or "clean" the ear.
An old science unit for how strong light is, based on the light from one candle. Today people usually use the unit called "candela" instead.
A former unit of luminous intensity approximately equal to the light produced by one standard candle, now largely replaced by the candela.
One bar on a special price chart that shows how the price moved in a period, including the start, end, highest, and lowest price.
A single bar on a financial candlestick chart that displays the open, close, high, and low prices for a specific time period.
- Base: candle
- Plural: candles
- Base: candle
- 3rd Person Singular: candles
- Present Participle: candling
- Past: candled
better to light a candle than curse the darkness
1take action instead of complaining
It is better to do something small to improve a bad situation than just to complain about it.
- Her motto is that it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness, so she started a local charity.
- The speech ended with the line, "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
- Rather than complain about pollution, he chose to light a candle and organized a cleanup day.
burn the candle at both ends
1work or stay busy for too long
To work or be busy very late at night and very early in the morning, so that you become very tired.
- If you keep burning the candle at both ends, you’re going to get sick.
- She was burning the candle at both ends while studying for exams and working full-time.
- He looks exhausted; he’s been burning the candle at both ends for weeks.
can't hold a candle to
1be much worse than
To be much less good than someone or something; not to be able to compete with them.
- This new restaurant can’t hold a candle to the old family place we used to go to.
- As a guitarist, I can’t hold a candle to her.
- The sequel doesn’t hold a candle to the original movie.
not worth the candle
1not worth the effort or cost
Not worth the time, money, or effort that you must spend on it.
- For such a small return, all this paperwork is not worth the candle.
- He decided the legal fight wasn’t worth the candle and dropped the case.
- Some people feel that arguing about it just isn’t worth the candle.