LIGHTENING • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Lightening

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/lˈaɪtənɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Lighten v. t.

To make light or clear; to light; to illuminate; as, to lighten an apartment with lamps or gas; to lighten the streets. (In this sense less common than light.) "A key of fire ran all along the shore, And lightened all the river with a blaze."

To illuminate with knowledge; to enlighten. (In this sense less common than enlighten.) "Lighten my spirit with one clear heavenly ray."

To emit or disclose in, or as in, lightning; to flash out, like lightning. "His eye... lightens forth Controlling majesty."

To free from trouble and fill with joy. "They looked unto him, and were lightened."

Lighten v. t.

To make lighter, or less heavy; to reduce in weight; to relieve of part of a load or burden; as, to lighten a ship by unloading; to lighten a load or burden.

To make less burdensome or afflictive; to alleviate; as, to lighten the cares of life or the burden of grief.

To cheer; to exhilarate. "Lightens my humor with his merry jests."

Lighten v. i. To descend; to light. "O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us."

Lighten v. i. (past & past part. lightened; pres. part. lightening)

To burst forth or dart, as lightning; to shine with, or like, lightning; to display a flash or flashes of lightning; to flash. "This dreadful night, That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars As doth the lion."

To grow lighter; to become less dark or lowering; to brighten; to clear, as the sky.

noun

lightening n. The process of changing to a lighter color.

Synonyms: whitening.

See images of 'Lightening'

Etymology of 'Lightening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"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

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