Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LIGHT'EN, v.t.¹

1. To dissipate darkness; to fill with light; to spread over with light; to illuminate; to enlighten; as, to lighten an apartment with lamps or gas; to lighten the streets. A key of fire ran all along the shore, / And lightened all the river with a blaze. – Dryden.
2. To illuminate with knowledge; in a moral sense. A light to lighten the Gentiles. – Luke ii.
3. To free from trouble and fill with joy. They looked to him and were lightened. – Ps. xxxiv.