LIGHTEN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Lighten

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/lˈaɪtən/ 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.

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Etymology of 'Lighten'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lighten" Quotes from Famous Books

... and great desire; a girl-child whose very name was a compromise between the parents. For they called her Billy for sake of the boy her father wanted, and Louise for the girl her mother had longed for to lighten that terrible loneliness which the far frontier brings to the women who ...

— The Ranch at the Wolverine • B. M. Bower

... the first time, cattle should be put for awhile into a larger court, or on a road well fenced with enclosures, and guarded by men, to romp about. Two or three such allowances of liberty will render them quiet; and, in the mean time, to lighten their weight of carcass, they should have hay for a large proportion of their food. These precautions are absolutely necessary for cattle which have been confined in barns; otherwise, accidents may befall them on the road, where ...

— Cattle and Their Diseases • Robert Jennings

... go there, willing to bear the unmerited punishment, the lifelong disgrace. Why? Pickles, think hard as he would, could get no answer to solve this difficulty. True, she had said she had something in her mind which would lighten the prison fare and the prison life. What was it? Pickles could stand it no longer; he must go and consult his mother. He ran downstairs. Mrs. Price had not yet gone to bed. Pickles sat down beside her by the fire, and laid his curly ...

— Sue, A Little Heroine • L. T. Meade

... improve clay soils is by using coarse vegetable manures, large quantities of stable, manures, ashes, chips, sawdust, sand, or any similar materials, which will tend to break up and lighten the soil mechanically. Lime and land plaster are also valuable, as they cause chemical changes which tend ...

— Home Vegetable Gardening • F. F. Rockwell

... and it was all to be desolate again. She repeated whatever wise things one can say to oneself; she even anticipated, as people so often do, the wretched comfort that time would come at last to her relief; and then she cursed the time which would have to pass before it could lighten her sufferings—she cursed the dead, cold time when they would be lightened. At last she burst into tears; they were the more welcome, since tears with her were rare. She flung herself on the sofa, and gave herself up unreservedly ...

— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. II • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

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