alighten

verb

1. To alight, to dismount or get down from.

   “When I alighten at my destination, I saw them going in the rickshaw.”

   “Her house was barely half a kilometre away from the nearest bus stage; she alightened with ease and wiped the thin layer of sweat that had accumulated on her forehead.”

   “In case the train halts on account of such alert, the patrolling parties should alighten from the running train and be on the look out for the offenders.”

2. To alight; to land, to descend and rest.

   “The bees always alighten at the bottom of the spike, and, crawling spirally up it, sucked one flower after the other.”

   “Both of the two jays that had just moved flew out of the tree and alightened in the boughs of a nearby cedar.”

   “Even under the best ecological conditions, only a fraction of the flowers on which a bee alightens provide nectar and/or pollen.”

3. To lighten; to reduce in weight or heaviness.

   “I shivered and shook, and would have screqamed in my fright—but the Fiend,—as he seemed to be, —in a hoarse, croaking voice, charged me to keep silence,—saying that I had lain seven years bound for my sin, and that my soul would speedily be sent on an errand to sinners yet on the earth, to warn them from the evil of their ways, —and that, then, my punishment in Purgatory would be alightened.”

   “On the fifth day Mr. Hedly (who first motioned lot-drawing) and another died, whereby their boat was somewhat alightened.”

   “An honest poor man dwelling in Faladon beside Alnwick said to me that where he had denied to a gentleman his neighbour an unreasonable request, he answered rigorously these words: I shall alighten thee of that thing which thou bearest thee bold of — and within four hours after, was reaved him sixteen heads of nowt [=cattle].”

4. To make light; to illuminate or brighten.

   “Of those who should be alightened by his faith and sanctified by his grace Christ designed to form a holy society, over which he will reign for ever.”

   “Sometimes, indeed, when for an hour or two my spirits are alightened, I glimmer a little into futurity; but my principal, and indeed my only pleasurable employment, is looking backwards and forwards in a moral and religious way.”

   “My joy shall be in the midst of thousands ; my soul shall alighten through the gloom of the fight !"”