Library / English Dictionary

ALIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lighted up by or as by fire or flame

Example:

houses on fire

Synonyms:

ablaze; afire; aflame; aflare; alight; on fire

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

lighted; lit (set afire or burning)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Come down

Example:

the birds alighted

Synonyms:

alight; climb down

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "alight" is one way to...):

come down; descend; fall; go down (move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

To come to rest, settle

Example:

Misfortune lighted upon him

Synonyms:

alight; light; perch

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "alight" is one way to...):

land; set down (reach or come to rest)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

This yields an image in which the structures or details are alight while the areas where the structures or details are absent are dark.

(Dark Field Microscopy, NCI Thesaurus)

It had stopped, and the master was alighting.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I alighted and was conducted to my solitary apartment to spend the evening as I pleased.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I looked up; a pale glimmer of moonbeams had alighted on the summit of the Spy-glass, and soon after I saw something broad and silvery moving low down behind the trees, and knew the moon had risen.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If anyone had been watching her, he would have thought her movements decidedly peculiar, for on alighting, she went off at a great pace till she reached a certain number in a certain busy street.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The King, the Queen, Buckingham, Wolsey, Cromwell, all were given in turn; for with the happiest knack, the happiest power of jumping and guessing, he could always alight at will on the best scene, or the best speeches of each; and whether it were dignity, or pride, or tenderness, or remorse, or whatever were to be expressed, he could do it with equal beauty.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They arrived in due time at the place of destination, and as soon as the string of carriages before them would allow, alighted, ascended the stairs, heard their names announced from one landing-place to another in an audible voice, and entered a room splendidly lit up, quite full of company, and insufferably hot.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Had they been only ten minutes sooner, they should have been beyond the reach of his discrimination; for it was plain that he was that moment arrived—that moment alighted from his horse or his carriage.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

So the good young fellow alighted and killed his horse with his sword, and gave it to them for food.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

We had hardly alighted at North Walsham, and mentioned the name of our destination, when the station-master hurried towards us.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)