see the light of day
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Become publicly known or implemented
Literally: emerge into daylight
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Then, if a new thought does see the light of day, it still requires the approval of the researcher's peer group within the academic or professional world.
A version of Gladys Knight's ' Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me ', another ragga collaboration, this time featuring the vocal talents of Sweetie Irie, should see the light of day in the summer.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “see the light of day” mean?
Become publicly known or implemented Literally: emerge into daylight
Is “see the light of day” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.