shine
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English shinen, schinen (preterite schon, past participle schinen), from Old English scīnan ("to shine, flash; be resplendent"; preterite scān, past participle scinen), from Proto-Germanic *skīnaną (“to shine”). Cognate with West Frisian skine, skyne, Low German schienen, Dutch schijnen, German scheinen, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål skinne, Norwegian Nynorsk skina, skine and Swedish skina.
Verb
shine (third-person singular simple present shines, present participle shining, simple past and past participle shone or shined)
- (intransitive) To emit light.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess:
- ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’
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- (intransitive) To reflect light.
- (intransitive) To distinguish oneself; to excel.
- 1867, Frederick William Robinson, No Man's Friend, Harper & Brothers, page 91:
- “ […] I was grateful to you for giving him a year’s schooling—where he shined at it—and for putting him as a clerk in your counting-house, where he shined still more.”
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- It prompted an exchange of substitutions as Jermain Defoe replaced Palacios and Javier Hernandez came on for Berbatov, who had failed to shine against his former club.
- My nephew tried other sports before deciding on football, which he shone at right away, quickly becoming the star of his school team.
- 1867, Frederick William Robinson, No Man's Friend, Harper & Brothers, page 91:
- (intransitive) To be effulgent in splendour or beauty.
- Spenser
- So proud she shined in her princely state.
- Alexander Pope
- Once brightest shined this child of heat and air.
- Spenser
- (intransitive) To be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliant intellectual powers.
- Jonathan Swift
- Few are qualified to shine in company; but it in most men's power to be agreeable.
- Jonathan Swift
- (intransitive) To be immediately apparent.
- (transitive) To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).
- 2007, David Lynn Goleman, Legend: An Event Group Thriller, St. Martin’s Press (2008), →ISBN Invalid ISBN, page 318:
- As Jenks shined the large spotlight on the water, he saw a few bubbles and four long wakes leading away from an expanding circle of blood.
- I shone my light into the darkness to see what was making the noise.
- 2007, David Lynn Goleman, Legend: An Event Group Thriller, St. Martin’s Press (2008), →ISBN Invalid ISBN, page 318:
- (transitive) To cause to shine, as a light.
- Francis Bacon
- He [God] doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues, upon men equally.
- Francis Bacon
- (US, transitive) To make bright; to cause to shine by reflected light.
- in hunting, to shine the eyes of a deer at night by throwing a light on them
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Noun
shine (countable and uncountable, plural shines)
- Brightness from a source of light.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- the distant shine of the celestial city
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Brightness from reflected light.
- Excellence in quality or appearance; splendour.
- Shoeshine.
- Sunshine.
- Dryden
- be it fair or foul, or rain or shine
- Dryden
- (slang) Moonshine.
- (cricket) The amount of shininess on a cricket ball, or on each side of the ball.
- (slang) A liking for a person; a fancy.
- She's certainly taken a shine to you.
- (archaic, slang) A caper; an antic; a row.
Synonyms
- (brightness from a source of light): effulgence, radiance, radiancy, refulgence, refulgency
- (brightness from reflected light): luster
- (excellence in quality or appearance): brilliance, splendor
- (shoeshine): See shoeshine
- (sunshine): See sunshine
- (slang: moonshine): See moonshine
Derived terms
- anti-shine powder
- come rain or shine
- fireshine
- shimmer
- shiner
- shininess
- shiny
- spitshine
- wondershine
Translations
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Etymology 2
From the noun shine, or perhaps continuing Middle English schinen in its causative uses, from Old English scīn (“brightness, shine”), and also Middle English schenen, from Old English scǣnan (“to render brilliant, make shine”), from Proto-Germanic *skainijaną, causitive of *skīnaną (“to shine”).
Verb
shine (third-person singular simple present shines, present participle shining, simple past and past participle shined)