lightening

Plurallightenings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of lighten.

   Hiring two more nurses went a long way toward lightening the workload on the night shift.

   Mirrors on the far wall help by lightening the narrow, windowless hallway.

   Note

   Both families of lighten's meaning run through this form: a sky lightening toward dawn, a new hire lightening everyone's workload. With an object it can mean making easier or brighter; without one (the sky is lightening) it means growing brighter. An archaic use, for giving off flashes in a storm, shows how close it sits to lightning, its doublet.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of making something light or lighter, or the lighter state that results.

   There was a noticeable lightening of the mood in the office once the deadline had passed.

   A careful lightening of the truck's load let it climb the mountain pass without overheating.

   Similareasing, brightening, reduction, lessening

   Oppositedarkening

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The sensation a pregnant woman feels when the uterus descends into the pelvic cavity before labor begins.

   Her midwife explained that the new pressure low in her pelvis was lightening, a sign that labor was getting closer.

   After lightening, she could finally take a deep breath, though she needed the bathroom far more often.

   Note

   Medicine counts this among the late-pregnancy signs that birth is approaching. The relief is felt higher up: as the uterus settles lower, pressure under the ribs eases and breathing comes more easily, while pressure on the bladder grows. It works as a bare noun, without an article (after lightening); in everyday talk the same change is put as the baby has dropped.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The unloading of cargo, especially crude oil, from a vessel to reduce its draft.

   The supertanker anchored offshore for lightening, transferring part of its crude to smaller tankers before entering the harbor.

   Without a lightening operation, the fully loaded ship's draft was too deep for the river channel.

   Similarlightering

   Note

   Shipping uses the word for a precise job: taking off enough cargo that a loaded hull rides higher, so the vessel can enter a shallow port or channel. Draft is the depth of the hull below the waterline. Tankers usually do it offshore, transferring crude to smaller vessels alongside; the same job is also called lightering.

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