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Lightening   /lˈaɪtənɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Lighten  v. t.  
1.
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."
2.
To illuminate with knowledge; to enlighten. (In this sense less common than enlighten.) "Lighten my spirit with one clear heavenly ray."
3.
To emit or disclose in, or as in, lightning; to flash out, like lightning. "His eye... lightens forth Controlling majesty."
4.
To free from trouble and fill with joy. "They looked unto him, and were lightened."


Lighten  v. t.  
1.
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.
2.
To make less burdensome or afflictive; to alleviate; as, to lighten the cares of life or the burden of grief.
3.
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)  
1.
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."
2.
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.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Lightening" Quotes from Famous Books



... ordinary repair; the ease with which the whole may be handled, started, reversed, or set at any point of expansion—all these being recommendations to enlist the care and attention of the engineers in charge by lightening their duties and rendering ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884 • Various
... which bind you as a wife remain equally strong and heavy, whatever be the conduct of your husband; and galling as the chain may be, you must only endeavour for resignation to bear it, till the Almighty, by lightening it, pleases to crown your gentleness and efforts ...
— The Wedding Guest • T.S. Arthur
... human face; in fact they are men.' That these violent and humiliating contrasts are eternal and inevitable, is the last word of the dominant philosophy of society; and one of the reasons why Turgot's life is worth studying, is that he felt in so pre-eminent a degree the urgency of lightening the destiny of that livid, wild, hardly articulate, ...
— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) - Turgot • John Morley
... forgotten herselfe, how without the feare of God, reuerence of her husband, and respect of her owne honesty, she had filthely giuen herselfe ouer to him which was called her Dareling. The good gentleman hearing this straung case, was astonned like one that had been stroken with a flashe of lightening, then drawing nere to the accuser, he aunswered. "Is it possible that suche wickednes can lye hidden in the breast of our Madame? I sweare vnto thee by God, that if any other had told it me besides you, ...
— The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 • William Painter
... He did of old For the lightening of men's woes. His wonders never can be told, His goodness no man knows,— His Love, His Power, His Tenderness,— Nor shall do ...
— Bees in Amber - A Little Book Of Thoughtful Verse • John Oxenham


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