The use of powerful lights directed at the head or face to temporarily blind or disorient someone, or illuminating using vehicle headlights.
From 'headlight' (the 'ing' participle form), a 20th-century term. The practice of using lights offensively is a modern phenomenon.
Police use headlighting tactics to disorient suspects, but neuroscientists have found that sudden bright light actually triggers a primitive freeze response in humans—the same one that makes prey animals freeze when spotted by predators.
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