light into

light into (someone or something)

1. To verbally or physically attack or accost someone. He's been lighting into the customer service representative for about half an hour now over our canceled flight. You can't just light into him anytime he doesn't do what we say—he's just a child! The actor lit into the film industry for allowing such abhorrent behavior to go unchecked.
2. To begin or undertake some task or activity at once and with great enthusiasm. We lit into the project as soon as the meeting was over. She always lights into her assignments and has them completed well before anyone else in class.
3. To venture into some place or thing at once or with haste. The prisoner scaled the wall and lit into the night. The adventurer drew her machete and lit into the dense green jungle.
4. To begin eating something with great relish or appetite. The whole table had been lighting into the meal for nearly an hour, and there was still a ton of food left over.
See also: light
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

light into

v.
To attack someone or something verbally or physically; assail someone or something: The two movie stars lit into the reporters for following them around.
See also: light
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • light into (someone or something)
  • light into someone
  • rough on, be
  • be rough on (someone or something)
  • buttonhole
  • buttonhole (someone)
  • buttonhole someone
  • lash into
  • lash into (someone or something)
  • lay for (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
You can see this for yourself by shining a white light beam through a prism, a clear crystal that refracts (bends) light rays to split white light into a spectrum, or range of colors (see "The visible spectrum," p.
Colors in concert
To commemorate the victims of the terrorist attacks, New York City beamed two pillars of light into the Manhattan sky from the former site of the World Trade Center.
Deprived of darkness: the unnatural ecology of artificial light at night
In a 1994 report, the biologists proposed that the spicules may pipe light into the sponge's interior where algae use it for photosynthesis.
Soaking Up Rays
This device, called the Billiblanket, consists of a halogen lamp that feeds light into 2,400 fiberoptic cables, each one ending inside a woven pad.
Timely surprises: biological clocks sense light in obscure ways
Although they could not secure any funding to study the light, the scientists jury-rigged a photometer that measures radiation at four different frequencies, ranging from visible red light into the invisible near-infrared.
The light at the bottom of the ocean; oceanographers struggle to explain a strange glow from seafloor vents
Light bounces back and forth between the mirrors to stimulate the emission of additional radiation, building up the emitted light into a strong beam.
Boosted light: laser action in white paint