throw light on

• throw light upon

throw light on (third-person singular simple present throws light on, present participle throwing light on, simple past threw light on, past participle thrown light on)

1. To make clear; to elucidate; to provide an explanation for (something puzzling or mysterious).
   • 1894, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough‎:

     As the explanation, if correct, promised to throw light on some obscure features of primitive religion, I resolved to develop it fully, and, detaching it from my general work, to issue it as a separate study.