brighten
English
Verb
brighten (third-person singular simple present brightens, present participle brightening, simple past and past participle brightened)
- (transitive) To make bright or brighter in color.
- We brightened the room with a new coat of paint.
- (transitive) To make illustrious, or more distinguished; to add luster or splendor to
- (Can we date this quote?) Jonathan Swift
- The present queen would brighten her character, if she would exert her authority to instill virtues into her people.
- (Can we date this quote?) Jonathan Swift
- (transitive, figuratively) To make more cheerful and pleasant; to enliven
- to brighten one's prospects; Having Mark around the place really brightens things up.
- (Can we date this quote?) Ambrose Philips
- An ecstasy, which mothers only feel, / Plays round my heart and brightens all my sorrow.
- (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.
- (intransitive) To become brighter or more cheerful in mood
- She brightened when I changed the subject.
- 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0091:
- 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.
- To make acute or witty; to enliven.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)
Derived terms
Translations
make brighter in color
make more cheerful
become brighter in color
become brighter in mood
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