shine Hear it!

shine Definition

shine (s̸hīn)

intransitive verb shone, shined, shin′·ing

  1. to emit or reflect light; be radiant or bright with light; gleam; glow
  2. to be eminent, conspicuous, or brilliant; stand out; excel
  3. to exhibit itself clearly or conspicuously love shining from her face

Etymology: ME schinen < OE scinan, akin to Ger scheinen < IE base *sāi-, to glimmer > Gr skia, shadow

transitive verb

  1. to direct the light of to shine a flashlight
  2. to make shiny or bright by polishing to shine shoes

noun

  1. brightness; radiance
  2. luster; polish; gloss
  3. ☆ shoeshine
  4. splendor; brilliance; show
  5. sunshine; fair weather
  6. ☆ Informal a trick or prank: usually used in pl.
  7. ☆ Slang black (): a vulgar term of hostility and contempt

shine Idioms

shine up to

☆

Slang to try to ingratiate oneself with; curry favor with

take a shine to

☆

Slang to take a liking to (someone)

shine Synonyms

shine

v.

  1. To give forth light

    radiate, beam, scintillate, glitter, sparkle, twinkle, glimmer, glare, glow, flash, blaze, shimmer, illumine, illuminate, blink, shoot out beams, irradiate, dazzle, bedazzle, flash, luminesce, flicker; see also sense 2, light 1.

  2. To reflect light

    glisten, gleam, glow, look good, be bright, grow bright, be effulgent, scintillate, have a gloss, give back, give light, deflect, mirror; see also sense 1, reflect 3.

  3. To cause to shine, usually by polishing

    polish, brighten, scour, brush, put a gloss on, put a finish on, finish, burnish, furbish, wax, buff, polish up, polish to a high luster, give a sheen to, make brilliant, make glitter; see also clean, glaze, polish. See syn. study at polish.

shine Usage Examples

Object

  • armor: A portrait of the Victorian age, indeed any age, must show the dirty linen under the shining armor.
  • spotlight: Which is why WDM, with campaigning colleagues across Europe, is shining the spotlight on the business lobbyists.
  • flashlight: By shining the flashlight on his bedroom floor Jamie opened up a link with a very strange new world.
  • beacon: As we move into a new millenium, Mars is a shining beacon of all we can become; all we can achieve.
  • flashlight: MULDER shines flashlight at SCULLY. ) MULDER: Trick or treat.
  • sun: The sun shone in the windows from late afternoon which didn't help either.

Converse of object

  • let: Hang the collage in a window and let the sun shine through.

Preposition: as

  • beacon: One area which shone as a beacon of information and help was an unofficial somewhat irreverent website called the Army Rumor Service.

Adjective modifier

  • perpetual: And let perpetual light shine upon them; May they rest in peace.
  • lasting: May the Good Lord bless your shoes with a lasting shine.

Adjective complement

  • bright: Married in days of December's cheer, Love's star shines brighter from year to year.

Modifying Another Word

  • brightly: Faith, however, shines brightly in her case.

Followed by an intransitive particle

  • through: However, the maternal instinct clearly shone through with women proving more generous with their prize money.

Preposition: in

  • darkness: It vanishes in the light of day, but shines in the darkness.
  • sunlight: The ring looked like aluminum shining in the sunlight.
  • sky: A star shines high up in the sky, bringing greetings from a distant homeland.

Preposition: with

  • splendor: This stone shines with every color, because contemplation shines with the splendor of every virtue.

Noun used with modifier

  • sun: By 1.30pm we were sat on the veranda of our chalet enjoying a proper French lunch in the beautiful sun shine.

Preposition: like

  • beacon: The sphere of frozen moonlight gleamed, overshadowing the sunlight, shining like a beacon to light the path to a glorious future.
  • sun: How can you go up to people and tell them they're walking around shining like the sun?
shine Quotes

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the L is risen upon thee.

—Bible (Old Testament)

   Pardon me boy is that the Chattanooga Choo-choo, Track twenty nine, Boy you can give me a shine.

—Gordon, Mack

No one could shine his shoes, much less fill them.

—Isaacson,Walter Seff

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, council, governments, Myself not least, but honoured of them all; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windyTroy. I am part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breathe were life.

—Tennyson

Browse dictionary entries near shine

  1. ‹ shindy
  2. ‹ shindig
  3. ‹ shinbone
  4. ‹ Shinar
  5. ‹ shin
  6. ‹ Shimonoseki
  7. ‹ Shimomura, Tsutomu
  8. ‹ shimmy
  9. ‹ shimmering
  10. ‹ shimmer
  1. shiner ›
  2. shingle ›
  3. shingles ›
  4. shinguard ›
  5. shininess ›
  6. shining ›
  7. shinleaf ›
  8. shinny ›
  9. shinplaster ›
  10. shinsplints ›