shining

comparative more shining · comparative nonstandard rare shininger · superlative most shining · nonstandard rare superlative shiningest

1. Emitting light.

   'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 1

   Synonyms: glowing, luminous

2. Reflecting light.

   Synonyms: mirrorlike, relucent, gleamy, glisteny, mirrorlike, mirrory, relucent, shiny

3. Having a high polish or sheen.

   He was at the wedding, too. His beard was flowinger and redder, and the part in the back of his head shininger than ever. He had an elegant time. He was so full of himself you would have thought it was his own party.

   1910 February, Kate Langley Bosher, “A Real Wedding”, in Mary Cary: “Frequently Martha”, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 165

   1 more example

   Hardly knowing what he meant, she plucked a many-headed specimen with a long stalk. At the end of it was such a shining needle that it dazzled her eyes so that she couldn’t see how she did the sewing up with it. But however it was done, the torn sleeve, she says, “didn’t look like wanting mending any more, but was better tore ’cos it let you see he had a shininger coat under.”

   1913, Greville MacDonald, “The Twins Write a Letter and Get New Shoes”, in Jack & Jill: A Fairy Story, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 53

4. Having exceptional merit.

   a shining example

   1 more example

   Jill had, as you might say quite fallen in love with the Unicorn. She thought—and she wasn’t far wrong—that he was the shiningest, delicatest, most graceful animal she had ever met: and he was so gentle and soft of speech that, if you hadn’t known, you would hardly have believed how fierce and terrible he could be in battle.

   1956, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “What News the Eagle Brought”, in The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia; 7), New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 82–83

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of shine

plural shinings

1. A bright emission of light; a gleam.