shine

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   make (a surface) shine

   shine the silver, please

2. 2
   verb

   be distinguished or eminent

   Their talent shines when they are on stage.

3. 3
   verb

   throw or flash the light of a lamp

   I was instructed to shine the lantern into the dark cave.

4. 4
   verb

   To emit or reflect light so as to glow.

   The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds.

5. 5
   verb

   To distinguish oneself; to excel.

   My nephew tried other sports before deciding on football, which he shone at right away, quickly becoming the star of his school team.

6. 6
   verb

   To be effulgent in splendour or beauty.

   So proud she shyned in her Princely state.

7. 7
   verb

   To be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliant intellectual powers.

   Few are qualified to shine in company; but it in most men's power to be agreeable.

8. 8
   verb

   To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).

   I shone my light into the darkness to see what was making the noise.

Etymology

From the noun shine, or perhaps continuing Middle English schinen in its causative uses, from Old English scīn (“brightness, shine”), and also Middle English schenen, from Old English scǣnan (“to render brilliant, make shine”), from Proto-Germanic *skainijaną, causative of *skīnaną (“to shine”).