| / English Dictionary |
LIGHTNING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("lightning" is a kind of...):
flash (a sudden intense burst of radiant energy)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lightning"):
heat lightning (bright flashes of light near the horizon without thunder (especially on hot evenings); usually attributed to distant lightning that is reflected by clouds)
sheet lighting (lightning that appears as a broad sheet; due to reflections of more distant lightning and to diffusion by the clouds)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("lightning" is a kind of...):
atmospheric electricity (electrical discharges in the atmosphere)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lightning"):
chain lightning; forked lightning (a form of lightning that moves rapidly in a zigzag path with one end divided (fork-like))
bolt; bolt of lightning; thunderbolt (a discharge of lightning accompanied by thunder)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form / present simple (first person singular and plural, second person singular and plural, third person plural) of the verb lightning
Context examples:
He was in and out like lightning, and his blows were heard and felt rather than seen.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They command, here he pointed up to heaven, the thunder and the lightning.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"Then off for your bonnet, and back like a flash of lightning!" cried he to Adele.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Instead, the team thinks the nitrates are ancient, and likely came from non-biological processes like meteorite impacts and lightning in Mars' distant past.
(Curiosity Rover Finds Biologically Useful Nitrogen on Mars, NASA)
Then there was his lightning quickness.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
The fires, believed to have been sparked by lightning on Saturday, were fanned by dry, hot winds as temperatures reached 41 C (106 F) throughout Sunday.
(Australian Wildfires Destroy Homes, Kill Cattle as Hundreds of People Flee, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
More than 85 percent occurred during a time when there were no storms or lightning; most of the fires started with human activities.
(Land cover change in Botswana savannas: Don't blame the elephants, National Science Foundation)
There used to be a very old one over yonder but it was struck by lightning ten years ago, and we cut down the stump.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes of lightning were darting at the same time from every quarter of the sky.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
As a flash of lightning in the night shows up in an instant every detail of a wild landscape, so at one glance I seemed to see every possible result of such an action—the detection, the capture, the honoured career ending in irreparable failure and disgrace, my friend himself lying at the mercy of the odious Milverton.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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