Lu"ci*fer (?), n. [L., bringing light, n., the morning star, fr. lux, lucis, light + ferre to bring.]
1.
The planet Venus, when appearing as the morning star; -- applied in Isaiah by a metaphor to a king of Babylon.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations !
Is. xiv. 12.
Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to, Satan.
Kitto.
2.
Hence, Satan.
How wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! . . .
When he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
Shak.
3.
A match made of a sliver of wood tipped with a combustible substance, and ignited by friction; -- called also lucifer match, and locofoco. See Locofoco.
4. Zool.
A genus of free-swimming macruran Crustacea, having a slender body and long appendages.
© Webster 1913.