Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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, from 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 organs 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.

LIGN-AL'OES, n. [L. lignum, wood, and aloes.]

Aloes wood. – Num. xxiv.

LIG'NE-OUS, a. [L. ligneus.]

Wooden; made of wood; consisting of wood; resembling wood. The harder part of a plant is ligneous.

LIG-NI-FI-CA'TION, n.

The process of becoming or of converting into wood, or the hard substance of a vegetable. – Good.

LIG'NI-FI-ED, pp.

Converted into wood.

LIG'NI-FORM, a. [L. lignum, wood, and form.]

Like wood; resembling wood. – Kirwan.

LIG'NI-FY, v.i.

To become wood.

LIG'NI-FY, v.t. [L. lignum, wood, and facio, to make.]

To convert into wood.

LIG'NI-FY-ING, ppr.

Converting into wood.

LIG'NIN, n. [L. lignum, wood.]

In chimistry, the woody part or fiber of plants.

LIG'NITE, n. [L. lignum.]

Fossil or bituminous wood, a mineral combustible substance. Dict. Nat. Hist.

LIG'NOUS, a.

Ligneous. [Little used.] – Evelyn.

LIG'NUM-VI-TAE, n. [LIG'NUM-VI-TÆ; L.]

The popular name of Guaiacum officinale or poxwood. The common Lignum-vitae is a native of the warm latitudes of America. It becomes a large tree, having a hard, brownish, brittle bark, and its wood firm, solid, ponderous, very resinous, of a blackish yellow color in the middle, and of a hot aromatic taste. It is of considerable use in medicine and the mechanical arts, being wrought into utensils, wheels, cogs, and various articles of turnery. – Encyc.

LIG'U-LATE, or LIG'U-LA-TED, a. [L. ligula, a strap.]

Like a bandage or strap; as, a ligulate flower, a species of compound-flower, the florets of which have their corollets flat, spreading out toward the end, with the base only tubular. This is the semiflosculous flower of Tournefort. – Botany.

LIG'ULE, n. [L. ligula, a strap.]

1. In botany, the flat part of the leaf of a grass, in contradistinction from that part which sheathes the stem.
2. A strap-shaped petal of a flower.

LIG'URE, n.

A kind of precious stone. – Exod. xxviii.

LIG'U-RITE, n. [from Liguria.]

A mineral occurring in oblique rhombic prisms, of an apple-green color, occasionally speckled. – Phillips.

LIKE, a. [Sax. lic, gelic, Goth. leiks, D. lyk, gelyk, G. gleich, Sw. lik, Dan. lig, lige, like, plain, even, equal, smooth. The sense of like, similar, is even, smooth, equal, but this sense may be from laying, pressing, and hence this word may be allied to the Eth. ለኬዐ lakeo, to stamp, seal, impress, whence its derivative, an image; or the sense be taken from rubbing or shaving. We observe that like has also the sense of please; to like is, to be pleased. Now, if p in L. placeo, is a prefix, the latter may be formed on the root of like. And if de is a prefix, in delight, detecto, delicious, delicate, these may be of the same family. Like is evidently from the same root as the Ch. and Heb. חלק, Ar. حَلَقَ chalaka, to be or make smooth. Qu. Gr. ἡλικος, ἡλικια. See Lick and Lickerish.]

1. Equal in quantity, quality or degree; as, a territory of like extent with another; men of like excellence. More clergymen were impoverished by the late war, than ever in the like space before. – Sprat.
2. Similar; resembling; having resemblance. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. James v. Why might not other planets, have been created for like uses with the earth, each for its own inhabitants. – Bentley. Like is usually followed by to but it is often omitted. What city is like to this great city? Rev. xviii. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs. Rev. xvi. Among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Dan. i.
3. Probable; likely, that is, having the resemblance or appearance of an event; giving reason to expect or believe. He is like to die of hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread. Jer. xxxviii. Many were not easy to be governed, not like to conform themselves to strict rules. – Clarendon.

LIKE, adv.

1. In the same manner. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matth. vi. Luke xii. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Ps. ciii.
2. In a manner becoming. Be strong, and quit yourselves like men. – Sam. iv.
3. Likely; probably; as, like enough it will. – Shak.