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To flash, as lightning; to lighten; to gleam; to thunder. [Obs.] "Flames of fouldering heat." Spenser.

Lightening. [R.] Dr. H. More.

The act of lightening. [R.] Donne.

Twilight (of morning or evening); the gloaming. When the faint glooming in the sky First lightened into day. Trench. The balmy glooming, crescent-lit. Tennyson.

Barbarous; unenlightened; heathenish.

a complimentary manner or with civility. Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighten to honor. Esther vi. 9. The name of Cassius honors this corruption. Shak.

To become the same; to coalesce in interest, purpose, use, effect, etc. [Obs. or R.] An enlightened self-interest, which, when well understood, they tell us will identify with an interest more enlarged and public. Burke.

Destitute of knowledge; uninstructed or uninformed; untaught; unenlightened. He that doth not know those things which are of use for him to know, is but an ignorant man, whatever he may know besides. Tillotson.

Enlightened. Bp. Hall.

Literally, those who are enlightened; -- variously applied as follows: -

ledge to; to make known to; to acquaint; to advise; to instruct; to tell; to notify; to enlighten; -- usually followed by of. For he would learn their business secretly, And then inform his master hastily. Spenser. I am informed thoroughky of the cause. Shak.

Instructed; taught; enlightened. [Obs.] Milton.

To enlighten intellectually; to illuminate; as, to irradiate the mind. Bp. Bull.

The throwing overboard of goods from necessity, in order to lighten a vessel in danger of wreck.

That which is gained and preserved by knowing; instruction; acquaintance; enlightenment; learning; scholarship; erudition. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. 1 Cor. viii. 1. Ignorance is the curse of God; -Knowledge, the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. Shak.

Figuratively, anything which enlightens intellectually or morally; anything regarded metaphorically a performing the uses of a lamp. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Ps. cxix. 105. Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared. Cowper.

To lighten; to allay. [Obs.] Rom. of R.

That which illumines or makes clear to the mind; mental or spiritual illumination; enlightenment; knowledge; information. He shall never know That I had any light of this from thee. Shak.

The act of making bright, or the state of being made bright; enlightenment; brightening, as of the mental powers. [R.] Ball lightning, a rare form of lightning sometimes seen as a globe of fire moving from the clouds to the earth. -- Chain lightning, lightning in angular, zigzag, or forked flashes. -- Heat lightning,…

One who illustrates any subject, or enlightens mankind; as, Newton was a distinguished luminary.