illumine
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illumine
- /ɪˈl(j)uːmɪn/ UK
- /ɪˈlumən/ US
Rhymes with -uːmɪn
Where it comes from
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)).
verb illumines · illumining · illumined
- To shine light on (something). 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.
- To cause (something) to glow or shine with light. And as the bright sun glorifies the sky, / So is her face illumined with her eye; […]
- To enlighten (someone) spiritually; to induce (someone) to adopt, or believe in the truth of, a religion, religious tenet, etc. 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; […]
- To cause (the eyes) to see.
- To cause (a person or their face) to show enlightenment, happiness, etc.
- To enlighten (someone) intellectually. 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.
- To decorate (a page of a manuscript book) with ornamental designs. To Cato, Virgil pay'd one honeſt line; / O let my Country's Friends illumin mine!
- To become bright; to light up.
- To enlighten intellectually. 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.
- Of a person or their face: to show enlightenment, happiness, etc. "Shell-shock." Our faces did not illumine so she dragged on lamely, "Anyway, he's not well."
