shine

present singular third person shines · participle present shining · participle past shone · past shone · participle past shined · past shined

1. copulativeintransitiveTo emit or reflect light so as to glow.

   ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   1 more example

   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.

   1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194

   Synonyms: beam, glow, radiate

2. copulativeintransitiveTo reflect light.

   Synonyms: gleam, glint, glisten, glitter, luster, reflect, coruscate, flash

3. copulativeintransitiveTo 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.

   3 more examples

   “[…] I was grateful to you for giving him a year’s schooling—where he shined at it—and for putting him as a clerk in your counting-house, where he shined still more.”

   1867, Frederick William Robinson, No Man's Friend, Harper & Brothers, page 91

   It prompted an exchange of substitutions as Jermain Defoe replaced Palacios and Javier Hernandez came on for Berbatov, who had failed to shine against his former club.

   2011 January 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 0 - 0 Man Utd”, in BBC

   I can take the heat, baby, best believe That's the moment I shine

   2023 May 25, Dua Lipa, Caroline Ailin, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, “Dance the Night”, in Barbie the Album, performed by Dua Lipa

   Synonyms: excel, rule, bang, devour, eat, eat and leave no crumbs, excel, go hard

4. copulativeintransitiveTo be effulgent in splendour or beauty.

   So proud she shyned in her Princely state.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10

   1 more example

   Once brightest shined this child of heat and air.

   1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC

5. copulativeintransitiveTo 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.

   c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects

6. copulativeintransitiveTo be immediately apparent.
7. transitiveTo create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).

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

   1 more example

   As Jenks shined the large spotlight on the water, he saw a few bubbles and four long wakes leading away from an expanding circle of blood.

   2007, David Lynn Goleman, Legend: An Event Group Thriller, St. Martin’s Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 318

8. transitiveTo cause to shine, as a light or by reflected light.

   in hunting, to shine the eyes of a deer at night by throwing a light on them

   1 more example

   He [God] doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues, upon men equally.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

   Synonyms: belight, shed light on, alight, belight, beshine, bright, enlighten, fire

plural shines

1. countableuncountableBrightness from a source of light.

   the distant shine of the celestial city

   1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

   Synonyms: effulgence, radiance, radiancy, refulgence, refulgency

2. countableuncountableBrightness from reflected light.

   Synonyms: luster

3. countableuncountableExcellence in quality or appearance; splendour.

   Synonyms: brilliance, splendor

4. countableuncountableShoeshine.

   Take a shine. You need it.

   1980, Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, spoken by Julian Kaye (Richard Gere)

   Synonyms: see shoeshine

5. countableuncountableSunshine (typically in contrast with rain).

   be fair or foul, or rain or shine

   1685, John Dryden, Sylvae

   Synonyms: see sunshine

6. countableslanguncountableMoonshine; an illicitly brewed alcoholic drink.

   Synonyms: bathtub gin, bootleg, corn liquor, hooch, mountain dew, white lightning, coon-dick, coondick

7. countablederogatoryethnicoffensiveslangsluruncountableA black person.

   "If you want your black head blown off, shine, you just make a move to stop us."

   1970, Wally Feris, Across 110th, page 152

8. countableuncountableball gamesThe amount of shininess on a cricket ball, or on each side of the ball.
9. countableslanguncountableA liking for a person; a fancy.

   She's certainly taken a shine to you.

   Synonyms: affinity, liking, affinity, bag, bent, love, cup of coffee, cup of joe

10. archaiccountableslanguncountableA caper; an antic; a row.

present singular third person shines · participle present shining · participle past shined · past shined

1. transitiveTo cause (something) to be smooth and shiny by rubbing; put a shine on (something); polish (something).

   He shined my shoes until they were polished smooth and gleaming.

   Synonyms: wax, buff, polish, furbish, burnish, smooth, smoothen

2. transitiveball gamesTo polish a cricket ball using saliva and one’s clothing.

plural Shines

1. A surname.

1. abbreviationacronymcommunicationsAcronym of single high-impulse noise event.