illumine
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: art
arts
Etymology: From Middle English illuminen (“to light, light up; to shine; (figuratively) to enlighten spiritually; to make illustrious”) [and other forms], from Old French illuminer (“to light up, illuminate; (figuratively) to enlighten”) (modern French illuminer), from Latin illūmināre, the present active infinitive of illūminō (“to light up, illuminate; to brighten; to adorn; to make conspicuous”), from il- (variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, within’; intensifying prefix)) + lūminō (“to illuminate; to brighten; (figuratively) to reveal”) (from lūmen (“light; light source; (poetic) brightness; daylight”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“to shine; to see; bright”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).
Inflected forms:
form: illumines
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: illumining
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: illumined
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: illumined
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
literary
transitive
examples: Laſt night of al, when yonder ſtarre that's weſtward from the pole, had made his coarſe to illumine that part of heauen. Where now it burnes, Marcellus and myself, The bell then towling one.
[O]ut-flew / Millions of flaming ſwords, drawn from the thighs / Of mighty Cherubim; the ſudden blaze / Far round illumin'd hell: […]
The moon ſhone faintly by intervals, through broken clouds upon the waters, illumining the white foam which burſt around, and enlightening the ſcene ſufficiently to render it viſible.
Thou [Krishna, or the sun] art the being to whom heroes pray in peril of war, nor are their supplications vain when thus they pray, whether it be when thou illuminest the eastern region with thy orient light, when in thy meridian splendour, or when thou majestically descendest in the west.
The pages which I have the privilege of now introducing to the world, are calculated, I trust, to illumine the dark parts of the field of morals— […]
I am like a happy lover / Who illumines life with dreaming!
Skill in invention, lucid arrangement and disposition of facts, are appreciated not by one passage, or by two, but gradually manifest themselves in the general structure of a work; but a sublime thought, if happily timed, illumines an entire subject with the vividness of a lightning-flash, and exhibits the whole power of the orator in a moment of time.
As they passed, accelerating, on to the bridge and felt the first bite of the incline beyond, one had a fleeting glimpse of driver and fireman, illumined as by the fires of hell, the one tugging at the regulator handle, the other shovelling for dear life.
[T]he possibility that illustrations could actually illumine writing and draw out elements of a narrative doesn’t seem to count for much any more.
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
literary
transitive
examples: And as the bright sun glorifies the sky, / So is her face illumined with her eye; […]
The ſecond property of your excellent ſherris, is the vvarming of the blood, vvhich before (cold & ſetled) left the lyuer vvhite & pale, vvhich is the badge of puſilanimitie and covvardize: but the ſherris vvarmes it, and makes it courſe from the invvards to the partes extreames, it illumineth the face, vvhich as a beakon, giues vvarning to al the reſt of this little kingdom man to arme, […]
Fanny’s attractions increased—increased two-fold—for the sensibility which beautified her complexion and illumined her countenance, was an attraction in itself.
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
literary
transitive
examples: Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect, didst thou call to me, my holy and divine teacher, thou Jesus Christ, who illuminedst the spirit world with a light, which was not of this world; […]
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
literary
transitive
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
literary
transitive
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
literary
rare
transitive
examples: What in me is dark / Illumine, what is low raiſe and ſupport; / That to the highth of this great Argument / I may aſſert th' Eternal Providence, / And juſtifie the wayes of God to men.
This benighted mind, only illumined by a kind of miserable astuteness, and that 'cunning of the belly' which is born of want to engender avarice— […] had a pathos for his lively sympathies and his fresh heart.
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
literary
transitive
examples: To Cato, Virgil pay'd one honeſt line; / O let my Country's Friends illumin mine!
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: To trace the trail of feelings which such crises and calamities might be expected to breed in a woman of ordinary sensibility might have filled volumes. A dramatist, of course, has no volumes to fill. He is forced to contract. Even so, he can illumine; he can reveal enough for us to guess the rest.
gloss: Synonym of illuminate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: "Shell-shock." Our faces did not illumine so she dragged on lamely, "Anyway, he's not well."
Derived words: illumined
illumining
reillumine
unillumined
Translations: