shine
/ʃaɪn/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms shines shining shone shined
- verb (intransitive, copulative) To emit or reflect light so as to glow.
- verb (intransitive, copulative) To reflect light.
- verb (intransitive, copulative) To distinguish oneself; to excel. “My nephew tried other sports before deciding on football, which he shone at right away, quickly becoming the star of his school team.”
- verb (intransitive, copulative) To be effulgent in splendour or beauty.
- verb (intransitive, copulative) To be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliant intellectual powers.
- verb (intransitive, copulative) To be immediately apparent.
- verb (transitive) To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar). “I shone my light into the darkness to see what was making the noise.”
- verb (transitive) To cause to shine, as a light or by reflected light. “in hunting, to shine the eyes of a deer at night by throwing a light on them”
- noun Brightness from a source of light.
- noun Brightness from reflected light.
- noun Excellence in quality or appearance; splendour.
- noun Shoeshine.
- noun Sunshine (typically in contrast with rain).
- noun (slang) Moonshine; an illicitly brewed alcoholic drink.
- noun (slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
- noun (cricket) The amount of shininess on a cricket ball, or on each side of the ball.
- verb (transitive) To cause (something) to be smooth and shiny by rubbing; put a shine on (something); polish (something). “He shined my shoes until they were polished smooth and gleaming.”
- verb (transitive, cricket) To polish a cricket ball using saliva and one’s clothing.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
beam glow radiate gleam glint glisten glitter luster reflect coruscate flash sheen shimmer sparkle excel rule bang devour eat eat and leave no crumbs radiance radiancy effulgence refulgence refulgency fall strike polish smooth smoothen
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English shinen, schinen (preterite schon, past participle schinen), from Old English sċīnan (“to shine, flash; be resplendent”; preterite sċān, past participle sċinen), from Proto-West Germanic *skīnan (“to shine”), from Proto-Germanic *skīnaną (“to shine”).
Cognate with Dutch schijnen, German scheinen, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål skinne, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish skina, Faroese and Icelandic skína.
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, causative of *skīnaną (“to shine”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To emit rays of light; to give light; to beam with steady radiance; to exhibit brightness or splendor; as, the sun shines by day; the moon shines by night.
- verb To be bright by reflection of light; to gleam; to be glossy; as, to shine like polished silver.
- verb To cause to shine, as a light. [Obs.]
- verb To make bright; to cause to shine by reflected light; as, in hunting, to shine the eyes of a deer at night by throwing a light on them. [U. S.] Bartlett.
Etymology [OE. shinen, schinen, AS. scinan; akin to D. schijnen, OFries. skina, OS. & OHG. scinan, G. scheinen, Icel.skina, Sw. skina, Dan. skinne, Goth. skeinan, and perh. to Gr. Sheer pure, and Shimmer.]
Etymology [AS. scin. See Shine, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “shine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details