lightning

plural lightnings

1. uncountableusuallyA flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.

   Although we did not see the lightning, we did hear the thunder.

   5 more examples

   Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 38:35

   It was the thought of hot July and August days, when the clouds piled up like woolly mountains, and lightnings streaked the sky.

   1901, E. L. Morris, The Child's Eden, page 16

   Between 8 and 9 p.m., the recorder at a meteorological station at Harrow, Middlesex, picked up 1,470 lightning flashes within a radius of 10 to 15 miles, and observers at the station described the storm as "probably one of the most spectacular of the century."

   1958 November 28, “Storm Damage in the Home Counties”, in Railway Magazine, page 746

   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.

   2008, Kathy Clark, Stand By Your Man, page 280

   "Ruu": The adults in the village all said that children like me could calm the lightning and turn the storms into timely rain.

   2021 October 13, Genshin Impact, v2.2, miHoYo, iOS, Android, Windows, PS4, level/area: The Sun-Wheel and Mt. Kanna

2. uncountableusuallyA discharge of this kind.

   That tree was hit by lightning.

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   The lightning was hot enough to melt the sand.

   Auster and Aquilon with winged Steeds All ſweating, tilt about the watery heauens, With ſhiuering ſpeares enforcing thunderclaps, And from their ſhields ſtrike flames of lightening

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii

   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, […]

   1881, Daniel Pierce Thompson, The Green Mountain Boys, page 281

3. figurativelyuncountableusuallyAnything that moves very fast.

   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.

   1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter V, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC

4. archaicslanguncountableusuallyGin.

   I took some gin but it did little to calm my mood. […] 'Come now, Bess,' she entreated, and poured another glass of lightning. 'Tell your old mother everything.' I took a gulp of the spirit, then babbled all, showing her the loot now in my possession.

   2017, Jake Arnott, The Fatal Tree

5. obsoleteuncountableusuallyObsolete form of lightening.

1. not comparableExtremely fast or sudden; moving (as if) at the speed of lightning.

   The insurgents then began their lightning advance along the Euphrates in the Sunni heartland toward Baghdad.

   2018, Nader Uskowi, Temperature Rising, page 69

present singular third person lightnings · participle present lightninging · participle past lightninged · past lightninged

1. childishimpersonalintransitivenonstandardTo produce lightning.

   "Hey!" yelled Reggie, pulling her back. "Get in here! It's lightninging. I don't want a charcoal-broiled friend!"

   1987, Tricia Springstubb, Eunice Gottlieb and the unwhitewashed truth about life

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   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.

   1916, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy

   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.

   1968, Dan Greenburg, Chewsday: a sex novel

   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.

   1988, Carlo Collodi, Roberto Innocenti, The adventures of Pinocchio