Alight vs Arrive - What's the difference?
alight | arrive |
(with from) To spring down, get down, or descend, as from on horseback or from a carriage; to dismount.
(with on) To descend and settle, lodge, rest, or stop.
To come or chance (upon).
To light; light up; illuminate.
To set light to; light.
Lit, on fire, switched on.
(figuratively) Lit; on fire, burning.
(copulative) To reach; to get to a certain place.
* {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)
To obtain a level of success or fame.
* 2002 , Donald Cole, Immigrant City: Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1845-1921 (page 58)
To come; said of time.
To happen or occur.
* Waller
(archaic) To reach; to come to.
* Milton
* Shakespeare
* Tennyson
(obsolete) To bring to shore.
* Chapman
As verbs the difference between alight and arrive
is that alight is to make light or less heavy; lighten; alleviate or alight can be (with from) to spring down, get down, or descend, as from on horseback or from a carriage; to dismount or alight can be to light; light up; illuminate while arrive is .As an adjective alight
is lit, on fire, switched on.alight
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) alighten, from (etyl) .Etymology 2
From (etyl) alighten, from (etyl) .Verb
- Passengers are alighting from the carriage
- A flying bird alights on a tree
- Snow alights on a roof .
Etymology 3
From (etyl) alighten, from (etyl) .Verb
Etymology 4
From (etyl) alight, from (etyl) *. See above.Alternative forms
*Adjective
(-)- The sticks were damp and wouldn't catch alight .
- Her face was alight with happiness.
Usage notes
Used only as a predicative.arrive
English
Verb
citation, passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.}}
- Evidence that the Irish had arrived socially was the abrupt decline in the number of newspaper articles accusing them of brawling and other crimes.
- The time has arrived for us to depart.
- Happy! to whom this glorious death arrives .
- Ere he arrive the happy isle.
- Ere we could arrive the point proposed.
- Arrive at last the blessed goal.
- and made the sea-trod ship arrive them
