LIGHTNING
lightning
(noun) the flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more
lightning
(noun) abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
lightning (usually uncountable, plural lightnings)
A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.
A discharge of this kind.
(figuratively) Anything that moves very fast.
The act of making bright, or the state of being made bright; enlightenment; brightening, as of the mental powers.
Usage notes
• bolt, flash, strike are some of the words used to count lightning.
Coordinate terms
• thunderbolt
Adjective
lightning (not comparable)
Extremely fast or sudden; moving (as if) at the speed of lightning.
Verb
lightning (third-person singular simple present lightnings, present participle lightninging, simple past and past participle lightninged)
(impersonal, childish or nonstandard, intransitive) To produce lightning.
Usage notes
• The standard, but rare, verb for "produce lightning" is lighten, used only in the impersonal form "it lightens", or as "it’s lightening".
Source: Wiktionary
Light"ning, n. Etym: [For lightening, fr. lighten to flash.]
1. A discharge of atmospheric electricity, accompanied by a vivid flash of light, commonly from one cloud to another, sometimes from a cloud to the earth. The sound produced by the electricity in passing rapidly through the atmosphere constitutes thunder.
2. 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, more or less vivid and extensive flashes of electric light, without thunder, seen near the horizon, esp. at the close of a hot day.
– Lightning arrester (Telegraphy), a device, at the place where a wire enters a building, for preventing injury by lightning to an operator or instrument. It consists of a short circuit to the ground interrupted by a thin nonconductor over which lightning jumps. Called also lightning discharger.
РLightning bug (Zo̦l.), a luminous beetle. See Firefly.
– Lightning conductor, a lightning rod.
– Lightning glance, a quick, penetrating glance of a brilliant eye.
– Lightning rod, a metallic rod set up on a building, or on the mast of a vessel, and connected with the earth or water below, for the purpose of protecting the building or vessel from lightning.
– Sheet lightning, a diffused glow of electric light flashing out from the clouds, and illumining their outlines. The appearance is sometimes due to the reflection of light from distant flashes of lightning by the nearer clouds.
Light"ning, vb. n.
Definition: Lightening. [R.]
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Word of the Day
28 November 2024
SYNCRETISM
(noun) the fusion of originally different inflected forms (resulting in a reduction in the use of inflections)
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