Etymology From Middle English lightnen, equivalent to light + -en.
1
To make brighter or clearer; to illuminate.
to lighten an apartment with lamps or gas; to lighten the streets
A Key of fire ran all along the shore, And lighten’d all the river with the blaze:1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, London: Henry Herringman, stanza 231, p. 59:
2
To become brighter or clearer; to brighten.
3
Archaic To flash lightning, to give off lightning.
Enter the Conjurer; it lightens and thunders […]c. 1590 (date written), G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. […], London: […] Iohn Danter, for Raph Hancocke, and Iohn Hardie, […], published 1595, →OCLC, [line 500]:
[…] this dreadful night, That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars As doth the lion.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):
1 more example
While we were in the Twins it began to thunder and lighten and pour with rain.1986, Helen Garner, Yellow Notebook: Diaries 1978-1987, Text Publishing, published 2022, page 182:
4
To emit or disclose in, or as if in, lightning; to flash out, like lightning.
[…] behold his eye, As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth Controlling majesty:1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene 3]:
O Light which mak’st the Light, which makes the Day, Which setst the Eye without and Mind within, Lighten my spirit with one cleare heavenly ray, Which now to view it selfe doth first begin.1599, John Davies, “Of the Soule of man, and the immortalitie thereof”, in Nosce Teipsum. This Oracle Expounded in Two Elegies, London: John Standish, page 10:
Etymology From Middle English lightnen, equivalent to light + -en.
1
To alleviate; to reduce the burden of.
Sorrow can be lightened by being openly brought out.
Many hands lighten the workload.
1 more example
She cites a 2015 British poll conducted by the Family Holiday Association that found vacations can serve as “happiness anchors” that provide memories of familial joy to lighten the burdens of adulthood.2019 February 1, J. C. Garden, “Interrogating innocence: “Childhood” as exclusionary social practice”, in Childhood, volume 26, number 1, page 55:
2
To make light or lighter in weight.
3
To make less serious or more cheerful.
They looked unto him, were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 34:5: