MEANING
To manipulate someone into doubting their memory, perception, or judgment, often through repeated denial and distortion.
Use it for
An abuser rewriting events; missing evidence turned against a witness; manufactured distrust of one's own perceptionBuild menace through repeated contradiction and controlled evidence, not a single dishonest line.
Words that belong together
- gaslight a partner
- gaslight a witness
- systematic gaslighting
On the page
He tried to gaslight her by replacing the recordings and denying the originals.
The caretaker gaslighted every witness who mentioned the locked ward.
She kept dated notes because she suspected someone was gaslighting her.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- gaslight / gaslights
- Past tense
- gaslighted
- Past participle
- gaslighted
- Present participle
- gaslighting
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- gaslight / gaslights
- Present continuous
- am/is/are gaslighting
- Present perfect
- have/has gaslighted
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been gaslighting
- Past
- gaslighted
- Past continuous
- was/were gaslighting
- Past perfect
- had gaslighted
- Past perfect continuous
- had been gaslighting
- Future
- will gaslight / gaslights
- Future continuous
- will be gaslighting
- Future perfect
- will have gaslighted
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been gaslighting
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror. Sustained manipulative undermining, not every disagreement or lie. Focus on the perpetrator's behavior rather than treating the victim's doubt as weakness. Verb [base, third-person present, past, past participle, -ing]: gaslight, gaslights, gaslighted, gaslighted, gaslighting. Alternative past and past participle: gaslit.
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