Lightning vs Lightening - What's the difference?
lightning | lightening |
A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.
* 1901 , E. L. Morris, The Child's Eden , page 16:
A discharge of this kind.
* 1881 , Daniel Pierce Thompson, The Green Mountain Boys , page 281:
(figuratively) Anything that moves very fast.
* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), , chapter V:
The act of making bright, or the state of being made bright; enlightenment; brightening, as of the mental powers.
(Webster 1913)
Extremely fast or sudden.
Moving at the speed of lightning.
(impersonal, childish, or, nonstandard) To produce lightning.
* 1916 , Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy
* 1968 , Dan Greenburg, Chewsday: a sex novel
* 1987 , Tricia Springstubb, Eunice Gottlieb and the unwhitewashed truth about life
* 1988 , Carlo Collodi, Roberto Innocenti, The adventures of Pinocchio
(medicine) The sensation caused by the descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity before the onset of labour
(nautical) The removal of cargo (especially crude oil) from a vessel in order to reduce its draft
As nouns the difference between lightning and lightening
is that lightning is a flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth while lightening is the sensation caused by the descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity before the onset of labour.As verbs the difference between lightning and lightening
is that lightning is to produce lightning while lightening is present participle of lang=en.As an adjective lightning
is extremely fast or sudden.lightning
Noun
(en-noun)- Although we did not see the lightning , we did hear the thunder.
- It was the thought of hot July and August days, when the clouds piled up like woolly mountains, and lightnings streaked the sky.
- The lightning was hot enough to melt the sand.
- That tree was hit by lightning .
- The rain at length ceased; and the lightnings , as they played along the black parapet of clouds, that lay piled in the east, shone with less dazzling fierceness,
- Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking beast and dodged his opponent's thrust with ease. Then he raced to the rear of the tremendous thing and seized it by the tail.
Quotations
* 2008 , Kathy Clark, Stand By Your Man , page 280: *: Manny drove a few miles per hour under the speed limit, entranced by the awesome display of lightning streaking out of the clouds toward earth.Derived terms
* ball lightning * Jewish lightning * greased lightning * lightning bug * lightning bolt * lightning conductor * lightning detector * lightning in a bottle * lightning rod * sheet lightning * upward lightningCoordinate terms
* thunderboltAdjective
(-)Verb
(en verb)- Or if it thundered and lightninged , Aunt Frances always dropped everything she might be doing and held Elizabeth Ann tightly in her arms until it was all over.
- The next day, though it is not only raining but thundering and lightninging as well, antiquing is seen by three-fourths of those present as a lesser evil than free play.
- "Hey!" yelled Reggie, pulling her back. "Get in here! It's lightninging . I don't want a charcoal-broiled friend!"
- I don't know, Father, but believe me, it has been a horrible night — one that I'll never forget. It thundered and lightninged , and I was very hungry.
