light up vs strike a light

light up

verb
  • To light a cigarette, pipe, etc. 

  • To loosen, slacken, or ease off. 

  • To shock (someone) with a stun gun. 

  • He saw Mary and his face lit up. 

  • To open fire on a target or group of targets, especially with rockets, a flamethrower etc. 

  • To illuminate, to bring light to something, to brighten. 

  • To show an increase in activity or a brightening of mood. 

  • Smoking in this building is not allowed, so I always step outside to light up. 

  • To make happy. 

  • To activate the emergency sirens on a police vehicle in order to pull someone over. 

strike a light

verb
  • To create a flame (using a match, flint, etc.). 

How often have the words light up and strike a light occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )