brighten

Verb

brighten (third-person singular simple present brightens, present participle brightening, simple past and past participle brightened)

1. (transitive) To make bright or brighter in color.
   • We brightened the room with a new coat of paint.
2. (transitive) To make illustrious, or more distinguished; to add luster or splendor to
   • The preſent Queen is a Prince of as many and great Virtues as ever filled a Throne: How would it brighten Her Character to the preſent and after Ages, if She would exert Her utmoſt Authority to inſtill ſome Share of thoſe Virtues into Her People, which they are too degenerate to learn only from Her...1709, [Jonathan Swift], A Project for the Advancement of Religion, and the Reformation of Manners. […], London: […] Benj[amin] Tooke, […], →OCLC, pages 58–59
3. (figuratively, transitive) To make more cheerful and pleasant; to enliven
   • to brighten one’s prospects
   • Having Mark around the place really brightens things up.
4. (intransitive) To grow bright, or more bright in color; to clear up
   • The sun starts to brighten around this time of the year.
   • The sky brightened as the storm moved on.
5. (intransitive) To become brighter or more cheerful in mood
   • She brightened when I changed the subject.
   • Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. ¶ There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans...