traffic light

noun5

1. •
   A signalling device positioned at a road intersection or pedestrian crossing indicating the moment it is safe to drive, ride or walk, using a universal color code.

   • In Sydney you'd better be riding the clutch and completely in sync with the traffic lights so that your car is already moving as they turn green. — 2005
2. •
   [usually plural] A road intersection controlled by one or more such devices.

   • How do I get to the hospital? ~ You go straight on to the traffic lights, then turn left at the traffic lights and the hospital is on your right.
3. •
   A colour code using the three signals of a traffic light (green, yellow or amber, and red) as a metaphor.

   • The Department of Health recommends that food packaging display the recommended daily intake with a traffic light system, for ease of understanding.
4. •
   The colored dots on stamp sheet margins printed with offset printing or photogravure methods, used by the printers to check color accuracy.
5. •
   In Conway's Game of Life, an arrangement of four blinkers that are orthogonally equidistant from a central point.