Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Lightening   /lˈaɪtənɪŋ/   Listen
Lightening

noun
1.
Descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped.
2.
Changing to a lighter color.  Synonym: whitening.



Lighten

verb
(past & past part. lightened; pres. part. lightening)
1.
Make more cheerful.  Synonyms: buoy up, lighten up.
2.
Reduce the weight on; make lighter.
3.
Become more cheerful.  Synonyms: buoy up, lighten up.
4.
Make lighter or brighter.  Synonyms: brighten, lighten up.
5.
Become lighter.  Synonym: lighten up.
6.
Alleviate or remove (pressure or stress) or make less oppressive.  Synonym: relieve.  "Lighten the burden of caring for her elderly parents"



Related search:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Lightening" Quotes from Famous Books



... woke him at last, and he slowly sat up and stared about. He looked out of the window and saw that the sun was lightening the hills across the river. He rose and brushed his hair as well as he could, folded his blankets up, and went out to find his companions. They stood gazing silently at the river ...
— Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland

... no longer the enthusiastic editor, gathering around him the brilliant circle of the talents; he was the absorbed, depressed and ponderous man of business. It was as if some spirit that had breathed on him, sustaining him, lightening his incipient heaviness, had been removed. Jinny sat opposite him, a pale Mater Dolorosa. Her face, even when she talked to you, had an intent, remote expression, as if through it all she were listening for ...
— The Creators - A Comedy • May Sinclair

... laughed, but without much lightening the atmosphere. "Upon my word, Clodd, you amuse me—you quite amuse me," repeated ...
— Tommy and Co. • Jerome K. Jerome

... (against the Crown); (3) treason; (4) parricide, fratricide, etc.; (5) offences against humanity; (6) lese majeste; (7) unfilial conduct, and (8) crimes against society. But there were also six mitigations (roku-gi), all enacted with the object of lightening punishments according to the rank, official position, or public services of an offender. As for slaves, being merely a part of their proprietor's property like any other goods and chattels, the law took no cognizance ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... sentence that his wandering eye was caught beyond the window by the flash of a falling star of unusual brilliance. It was so bright, indeed, that he crossed the room to look out at the sky, stepping very softly, for he had grown accustomed to lightening his footfall, and now unconsciously the murmuring voices of the talkers made him move stealthily—not to steal upon them, but to keep from breaking in on their talk. But when he came to the door opening on the veranda the words he heard ...
— Bull Hunter • Max Brand


More quotes...



Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com