BRIGHTEN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Brighten

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/brˈaɪtən/ Listen

verb

Brighten v. t. (past & past part. brightened; pres. part. brightening) (From Bright, a.)

To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.

To make illustrious, or more distinguished; to add luster or splendor to. "The present queen would brighten her character, if she would exert her authority to instill virtues into her people."

To improve or relieve by dispelling gloom or removing that which obscures and darkens; to shed light upon; to make cheerful; as, to brighten one's prospects. "An ecstasy, which mothers only feel, Plays round my heart and brightens all my sorrow."

To make acute or witty; to enliven.

Brighten v. i. To grow bright, or more bright; to become less dark or gloomy; to clear up; to become bright or cheerful. "And night shall brighten into day." "And, all his prospects brightening to the last, His heaven commences ere world be past."

See images of 'Brighten'

Etymology of 'Brighten'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Brighten" Quotes from Famous Books

... home. All words which He speaks beforehand concerning that rest and the joyful worship there are pledges that it shall one day be theirs. The present use of the prospective law was to feed faith and hearten hope; and, when Canaan was reached, its use was to feed memory and brighten godly gladness. ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren

... was in command of the detachment of Northwest Mounted Police at Dufferin Bluff. Mrs. Hill was wont to declare that it was the most forsaken place to be found in Canada or out of it; but she did her very best to brighten it up, and it is only fair to say that the N.W.M.P., officers and men, ...

— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1896 to 1901 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... the imagination must know the yoke. Rousseau's imagination, in no way of the strongest either as receptive or inventive, was the free accomplice of his sensations. The undisciplined force of animal sensibility gradually rose within him, like a slowly welling flood. The spectacle does not either brighten or fortify the student's mind, yet if there are such states, it is right that those who care to speak of human nature should have an opportunity of knowing its less glorious parts. They may be presumed to exist, though ...

— Rousseau - Volumes I. and II. • John Morley

... he made his way through alleys to the outskirts of the town. A quarter of an hour later he came up the slope to the Shack. It was lighted, and the curtains were raised to brighten his way up the hill. Mary ...

— The River's End • James Oliver Curwood

... in despair of obtaining what we wanted, when we came, near the shore on the other side of the bay, on a small open space overgrown with what at first looked like weeds, but I saw the doctor's eye brighten as he espied them. Hurrying on he pulled away eagerly at ...

— Peter Trawl - The Adventures of a Whaler • W. H. G. Kingston

More quotes...