ILLUMINATING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Illuminating

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/ɪlˈumənˌeɪtɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Illuminate v. t. (past & past part. illuminated; pres. part. illuminating)

To make light; to throw light on; to supply with light, literally or figuratively; to brighten.

To light up; to decorate with artificial lights, as a building or city, in token of rejoicing or respect.

To adorn, as a book or page with borders, initial letters, or miniature pictures in colors and gold, as was done in manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

To make plain or clear; to dispel the obscurity to by knowledge or reason; to explain; to elucidate; as, to illuminate a text, a problem, or a duty.

Illuminate v. i. To light up in token or rejoicing.

adjective

Illuminating adj. Giving or producing light; used for illumination.

Illuminating gas. See Gas, n., 2 (a).

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Etymology of 'Illuminating'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Illuminating" Quotes from Famous Books

... stood up, gaunt, straight, twisting his sparse imperial, and blinking a bit doubtfully at the messenger. But Linton was not so much at a loss for reasons. He was an earnest young man with slow, illuminating smile. ...

— The Ramrodders - A Novel • Holman Day

... longer cared a whit for charges or convictions of all the crimes in the calendar. This fact is less trifling than it seems; for it proves the value of strategy as opposed to brute and sometimes brutal force, of which I shall presently give some illuminating examples. ...

— A Mind That Found Itself - An Autobiography • Clifford Whittingham Beers

... bedchamber of many memories—exquisite and tragic—became intolerable to her. She opened the double doors and passed into the Chapel-Room beyond, the light thrown by the tall wax candles set in silver branches upon her toilet-table, passing with her through the widely open doors and faintly illuminating the near end of the great room. There was other subdued light in the room as well. For a glowing mass of coal and wood still remained in the brass basket upon the hearth, and the ruddy brightness of ...

— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet

... instruments, the newest publications, intimacy with men of pursuits kindred to my own,—in short, all things necessary to insure a profitable devotion of my life to my beloved science. I had an abundance of money, few desires that were not bounded by my illuminating mirror on one side and my object-glass on the other; what, therefore, was to prevent my becoming an illustrious investigator of the veiled worlds? It was with the most buoyant hopes that I left my New England home and established ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... consideration," I replied, "which is the most difficult thing in the world for the Englishman to offer anybody." "But, you don't mean to say," he continued, "that they really want to cut our throats on account of our bad manners?" I cannot phrase it better, nor can I give a more illuminating illustration of the misunderstanding. That is exactly the reason, and the paramount reason, why nations and why individuals attempt to cut one another's throats. Whatever the fundamental differences may have been that have led to war between nations, the tiny spark that started the explosion ...

— Germany and the Germans - From an American Point of View (1913) • Price Collier

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