shining

Pluralshinings

1. 1
   adjective

   Giving off light of its own, as a star or candle does.

   A shining beacon marked the harbor entrance for incoming ships.

   The shining filament inside the bulb cast a warm glow across the desk.

   Similarglowing, luminous

   Oppositedark, dim, unlit

   Note

   The literal core of the word, built simply from shine plus -ing. Before a noun it is plainly an adjective: a shining beacon, a shining filament. After be it blurs into the verb. When Joseph C. Lincoln writes in 1913 that "the sun was shining," that is the progressive verb form at work. Glowing and luminous are its closest neighbors, and both, like this sense, describe light a thing makes rather than light it catches.

2. 2
   adjective

   Bright from reflecting light that falls on its surface.

   The shining hood of the car mirrored the streetlights as it passed.

   Dew left the grass shining wherever the early sun reached it.

   Similarshiny, gleaming, glistening

   Oppositedull, matte

3. 3
   adjective

   Having a glossy, polished surface with a clear sheen.

   The jeweler set the stone against a shining band of silver.

   Years of waxing had left the old oak counter smooth and shining.

   Similargleaming, glossy, polished, lustrous

   Oppositedull, matte, tarnished

   Note

   Comparison is where this sense turns playful. The standard forms are more shining and most shining. Kate Langley Bosher's "A Real Wedding" in Mary Cary (1910) instead has the back of a man's head "shininger than ever," next to a beard "flowingger and redder." That -er ending is nonstandard and rare, so it reads as deliberate whimsy. In ordinary prose, compare with more and most.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of shine.

   Moonlight was shining through the thin curtains all night.

   The candles kept shining until the last guests left.

   Note

   The -ing form carries the verb's continuous tenses and its noun-like uses: moonlight was shining, the candles kept shining. The silent e of shine drops before the ending. It brings the verb's figurative range with it too. Someone shining in a role is excelling or standing out, not giving off light, and the same spelling also serves as both adjective and noun.

5. 5
   adjective

   Outstanding in quality; marked by exceptional merit.

   The exhibit was the shining highlight of the entire festival.

   His patience with the children was a shining quality everyone admired.

   Similaroutstanding, brilliant, exemplary, stellar

   Oppositemediocre, lackluster

   Note

   Here merit takes the place of light, and the classic setting is a shining example. The adjective usually stands before its noun, praising a person or quality as a model for others. It can also take the polished sense's rare playful superlative. In C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle (1956), Jill finds the Unicorn "the shiningest, delicatest, most graceful animal she had ever met."

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A bright gleam of light given off by something.

   A sudden shining from the lighthouse cut through the fog.

   Through the bare trees they caught the faint shining of the town's lights.

   Similargleam, glow, glimmer, flash, beam

   Note

   A countable noun, unlike the gerund it resembles, so it takes a and forms the plural shinings. A sudden shining from a lighthouse is a single gleam. The shining of the candles, by contrast, names the ongoing act expressed by the verb form. If you can put a or a number in front of it, you have the noun.

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