shine
verbnounverbcommon in dialogue
- Canada//ʃaɪn//
To emit or reflect light so as to glow.
verb
- 1
To emit or reflect light so as to glow.
The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds.
‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’
- 2
To reflect light.
- 3
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.
“[…] I was grateful to you for giving him a year’s schooling—where he shined at it—and for putting him as a clerk in your counting-house, where he shined still more.”
It prompted an exchange of substitutions as Jermain Defoe replaced Palacios and Javier Hernandez came on for Berbatov, who had failed to shine against his former club.
I can take the heat, baby, best believe That's the moment I shine
- 4
To be effulgent in splendour or beauty.
So proud she shyned in her Princely state.
Once brightest shined this child of heat and air.
- 5
To be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliant intellectual powers.
Few are qualified to shine in company; but it in most men's power to be agreeable.
- 6
To be immediately apparent.
- 7
To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).
I shone my light into the darkness to see what was making the noise.
As Jenks shined the large spotlight on the water, he saw a few bubbles and four long wakes leading away from an expanding circle of blood.
- 8
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
He [God] doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues, upon men equally.
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.
noun
- 1
Brightness from a source of light.
the distant shine of the celestial city
- 2
Brightness from reflected light.
- 3
Excellence in quality or appearance; splendour.
- 4
Shoeshine.
Take a shine. You need it.
- 5
Sunshine (typically in contrast with rain).
be fair or foul, or rain or shine
- 6
slangMoonshine; an illicitly brewed alcoholic drink.
- 7
slangA black person.
"If you want your black head blown off, shine, you just make a move to stop us."
- 8
The amount of shininess on a cricket ball, or on each side of the ball.
- 9
slangA liking for a person; a fancy.
She's certainly taken a shine to you.
- 10
archaicA caper; an antic; a row.
verb
- 1
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.
- 2
To polish a cricket ball using saliva and one’s clothing.
Etymology
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”).
Forms
- plural
- shines
- past tense
- shone, shined
- past participle
- shone, shined
- present participle
- shining
- third person singular
- shines