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To descend; to light. O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us. Book of Common Prayer [Eng. Ed.]

To supply with light; to illuminate; as, the sun enlightens the earth. His lightnings enlightened the world. Ps. xcvii. 4.

One who enlightens or illuminates; one who, or that which, communicates light to the eye, or clear views to the mind.

Act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed.

To enlighten. [Obs.]

See Enlighten.

To slight. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

To allay or alleviate; to lighten. [Obs.] That shall alegge this bitter blast. Spenser.

To alleviate; to lighten, as a burden or a trouble. [Obs.] Wyclif.

To lighten or lessen the force or weight of. [Obs.] Should no others join capable to alleviate the expense. Evelyn. Those large bladders . . . conduce much to the alleviating of the body [of flying birds]. Ray.

The act of alleviating; a lightening of weight or severity; mitigation; relief.

To enamel. [Obs.] Enlightened all with stars, And richly ameled. Chapman.

cumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. Thus, learning enlightens the mind, because it is to the mind what light is to the eye, enabling it to discover things before hidden.

culations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations. Prescott. The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us. Locke. Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another.

iginally taught by the Hindoo sage Gautama Siddartha, surnamed Buddha, "the awakened or enlightened," in the sixth century b.c., and adopted as a religion by the greater part of the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Asia and the Indian Islands. Buddha's teaching is believed to have been atheistic; yet it was character…

ptuously. Partidge and the rest of his clan may hoot me. Smolett. The whole clan of the enlightened among us. Burke.

The state of being cultivated; result of cultivation; physical improvement; enlightenment and discipline acquired by mental and moral training; civilization; refinement in manners and taste. What the Greeks expressed by their humanitas, we less happily try to express by the more artificial word culture. J. C. Shairp. T…

to set right. To undeceive and disabuse the people. South. If men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves or artifice, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. J. Adams.

ch. It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public. Gibbon.

To illumine; to enlighten. [R.] Which from the first has shone on ages past, Enlights the present, and shall warm the last. Pope.