Lightening

//ˈlaɪ.tn̩.ɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act or result of making something light or lighter.

    "Bradly did not think of Cora till he picked up her figure ahead of him on the downs, but with that he was aware of a sudden lightening of his spirits, and stepped out faster to overtake her."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of lightning. alt-of, alternative, obsolete, proscribed
  3. 3
    changing to a lighter color wordnet
  4. 4
    The sensation caused by the descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity before the onset of labour
  5. 5
    descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped wordnet
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  1. 6
    The removal of cargo (especially crude oil) from a vessel in order to reduce its draft
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of lighten form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
whiteningabatementachromatizationallaymentalleviatingalleviation

Example

More examples

"Bradly did not think of Cora till he picked up her figure ahead of him on the downs, but with that he was aware of a sudden lightening of his spirits, and stepped out faster to overtake her."

Etymology

Doublet of lightning.

Related phrases

pelvic cavity

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.