alighten
/əˈlaɪtən/
alighten verb: to alight, to dismount or get down from.
Verb (1)
alighten (third-person singular simple present alightens, present participle alightening, simple past and past participle alightened)
- To alight, to dismount or get down from.
- When I alighten at my destination, I saw them going in the rickshaw.1971, Shankar's Weekly - Volume 24, Part 2, page 52
- Her house was barely half a kilometre away from the nearest bus stage; she alightened with ease and wiped the thin layer of sweat that had accumulated on her forehead.1975, Bingu Matata, Free Love, page 34
- To alight; to land, to descend and rest.
- The bees always alighten at the bottom of the spike, and, crawling spirally up it, sucked one flower after the other.1862, Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening - Volume 3, page 163
- Both of the two jays that had just moved flew out of the tree and alightened in the boughs of a nearby cedar.2002, Diana Hignutt, Moonsword, page 214
Verb (2)
alighten (third-person singular simple present alightens, present participle alightening, simple past and past participle alightened)
- To lighten; to reduce in weight or heaviness.
- I shivered and shook, and would have screqamed in my fright—but the Fiend,—as he seemed to be, —in a hoarse, croaking voice, charged me to keep silence,—saying that I had lain seven years bound for my sin, and that my soul would speedily be sent on an errand to sinners yet on the earth, to warn...1850, Thomas Cooper, Captain Cobler; Or, The Lincolnshire Rebellion, page 311
- On the fifth day Mr. Hedly (who first motioned lot-drawing) and another died, whereby their boat was somewhat alightened.1965, Thomas Fuller, P. Austin Nuttal, The History of the Worthies of England - Volume 1, page 459
Verb (3)
alighten (third-person singular simple present alightens, present participle alightening, simple past and past participle alightened)
- To make light; to illuminate or brighten.
- Of those who should be alightened by his faith and sanctified by his grace Christ designed to form a holy society, over which he will reign for ever.1806, Permiffion, The Laity's Directory, page 62
- Sometimes, indeed, when for an hour or two my spirits are alightened, I glimmer a little into futurity; but my principal, and indeed my only pleasurable employment, is looking backwards and forwards in a moral and religious way.1828, John Gibson Lockhart, Life of Robert Burns, page 46
Examples of alighten in a sentence
- In case the train halts on account of such alert, the patrolling parties should alighten from the running train and be on the look out for the offenders.1990, The Indian Police Journal - Volume 37, page 21:
- Even under the best ecological conditions, only a fraction of the flowers on which a bee alightens provide nectar and/or pollen.2014, Raymond P. Kesner, David S. Olton, Neurobiology of Comparative Cognition:
- My joy shall be in the midst of thousands ; my soul shall alighten through the gloom of the fight !"2010, James MacPherson, The Poems of Ossian - Volume 4, page 297:
Forms of alighten
| third-person singular present | alightens |
|---|---|
| present participle | alightening |
| past participle | alightened |
| past | alightened |
Origin of alighten
From Middle English alighten, from a merger of Old English ālīhtan (“to alight, dismount”), from prefix ā- (compare Gothic 𐌿𐍃- (us-), German er- originally meaning "out") + līhtan (“to alight”); and Old English ġelīhtan (“to alight, approach, come, come down, dismount”); equivalent to alight + -en.
From Middle English alighten, from a merger of Old English ālīhtan (“to lighten, relieve, alleviate, take off, take away, alight”) and Old English ġelīhtan (“to lighten, mitigate, assuage”); equivalent to a- + lighten.
From Middle English alighten, from Old English ālīhtan (“to light up, enlighten”); equivalent to a- + light. Cognate with German erleuchten (“to light up, illuminate”).
Questions about alighten
- What does alighten mean?
- Alighten means to alight, to dismount or get down from.
- How do you use alighten in a sentence?
- In case the train halts on account of such alert, the patrolling parties should alighten from the running train and be on the look out for the offenders.
- What part of speech is alighten?
- Alighten is a verb.
- How do you pronounce alighten?
- Alighten is pronounced /əˈlaɪtən/.
- What is the past tense of alighten?
- The past tense of alighten is alightened.
Words near alighten in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: alighten (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “alighten.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alighten. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.