Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LIGHT-ER-AGE, n.

The price paid for unloading ships by lighters or boats; also, the act of thus unloading into lighters or boats.

LIGHT'ER-MAN, n. [li'terman.]

A man who manages a lighter; a boatman.

LIGHT'-FIN-GER-ED, a. [li'tefingered.]

Dextrous in taking and conveying away; thievish; addicted to petty thefts.

LIGHT'-FOOT, or LIGHT'-FOOT-ED, a. [li'tefoot or li'tefooted.]

Nimble in running or dancing; active. [Little used.] Spenser.

LIGHT'-HEAD-ED, a. [See Head.]

1. Thoughtless; heedless; weak; volatile; unsteady. Clarendon.
2. Disordered in the head; dizzy; delirious.

LIGHT'-HEAD-ED-NESS, n.

Disorder of the head; dizziness; deliriousness.

LIGHT-HEART'ED, a.

Free from grief or anxiety; gay; cheerful; merry.

LIGHT-HEART'ED-LY, adv.

With a light heart.

LIGHT-HEART-ED-NESS, n.

The state of being free from care or grief; cheerfulness.

LIGHT'-HEEL-ED, a.

Lively in walking; brisk.

LIGHT'-HORSE, n.

Light-armed cavalry.

LIGHT'HOUSE, n.

A pharos; a tower or building erected on a rock or point of land, or on an isle in the sea, with a light or number of lamps on the top, intended to direct seamen in navigating ships at night.

LIGHT'ING, ppr.

Kindling; setting fire to.

LIGHT'LEG-GED, a.

Nimble; swift of foot. Sidney.

LIGHT'LESS, a. [li'teless.]

Destitute of light; dark.

LIGHT'LY, adv. [li'tely.]

1. With little weight; as, to tread lightly; to press lightly.
2. Without deep impression. The soft ideas of the cheerful note, Lightly received, were easily forgot. Prior.
3. Easily; readily; without difficulty; of course.
4. Without reason, or for reasons of little weight. Flatter not the rich, neither do thou wittingly or lightly appear before great personages. Taylor.
5. Without dejection; cheerfully. Bid that welcome Which comes to punish us, and we punish it, Seeming to bear it lightly. Shak.
6. Not chastely; wantonly. Swift.
7. Nimbly; with agility; not heavily or tardily. He led me lightly over the stream.
8. Gayly; airily; with levity; without heed or care.

LIGHT-MIND'ED, a.

Unsettled; unsteady; volatile; not considerate. He that is hasty to give credit is lightminded. Ecclus.

LIGHT'NESS, n. [li'teness.]

1. Want of weight; levity; the contrary to heaviness; as, the lightness of air compared with water.
2. Inconstancy; unsteadiness; the quality of mind which disposes it to be influenced by trifling considerations. Such is the lightness of you common men. Shak.
3. Levity; wantonness; lewdness; unchastity. Shak. Sidney.
4. Agility; nimbleness.

LIGHT'NING, n. [li'tening. That is, lightening, the participle present of lighten.]

1. A sudden discharge of electricity from a cloud to the earth, or from the earth to a cloud, or from one cloud to another, that is, front a body positively charged to one negatively charged, producing a vivid flash of light, anti usually a loud report, called thunder. Sometimes lightning is a mere instantaneous flash of light without thunder, as heat-lightning, lightning seen by reflection, the flash being beyond the limits of our horizon.
2. [from lighten, to diminish weight.] Abatement; alleviation; mitigation. Spectator.

LIGHT'NING-GLANCE, n.

A glance or darting of lightning. Allen.

LIGHT'-ROOM, n.

In a ship of war, a small apartment having double glass windows toward the magazine, and containing lights by which the gunner fills cartridges. Mar. Dict.

LIGHTS, n. [lites. plur. So called from their lightness.]

The lungs; the organs of breathing in brute animals. These organ. in man we call lungs; in other animals, lights.

LIGHT'SOME, a. [li'tesome.]

1. Luminous; not dark; not obscure. White walls make rooms more lightsome than black. [Little used.] Bacon. The lightsome realms of love. Dryden. [In the latter passage, the word is elegant.]
2. Gay; airy; cheering; exhilarating. That lightsome affection of joy. Hooker.

LIGHT'SOME-NESS, n.

1. Luminousness; the quality of being light; opposed to darkness or darksomeness. Cheyne.
2. Cheerfulness; merriment; levity. [This word is little used.]

LIGHT-SPIR'IT-ED, a.

Having a light or cheerful spirit. Irving.