lightening

[ lahyt-n-ing ]
See synonyms for: lighteninglightenings on Thesaurus.com

nounMedicine/Medical.
  1. the descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity, occurring toward the end of pregnancy, changing the contour of the abdomen and facilitating breathing by lessening pressure under the diaphragm.

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Origin of lightening

1
First recorded in 1520–30; lighten2 + -ing1

Words that may be confused with lightening

Words Nearby lightening

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use lightening in a sentence

  • He believes that the plane was hit by a bolt of lightening and went down in deep water.

    Missoni Family: Chance He’s Alive | Barbie Latza Nadeau | January 9, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Buckling down to tie-up loose ends is key to lightening your mental load.

    The Stars Predict Your Week | Starsky + Cox | October 9, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • By five in the morning, the sky was lightening, and we trudged back toward Christopher Street, where I could catch a train home.

  • It was as if some spirit that had breathed on him, sustaining him, lightening his incipient heaviness, had been removed.

    The Creators | May Sinclair
  • Michael sighed under a faint lightening of his load, and Stella came up to him engagingly to slip her arm into his.

    Sinister Street, vol. 1 | Compton Mackenzie
  • He pointed with shaking fingers away toward the east, where a faint gleam of daylight was lightening the sky.

    The New Tenant | E. Phillips Oppenheim
  • May God forbid, that after all these years of darkness you should play me false now when the dawn is already lightening the sky.

    Mysterious Mr. Sabin | E. Phillips Oppenheim
  • A soft grey twilight rested upon the sea; darker and blacker the waters seemed just then by contrast with the lightening skies.

    Mysterious Mr. Sabin | E. Phillips Oppenheim

British Dictionary definitions for lightening

lightening

/ (ˈlaɪtənɪŋ) /


noun
  1. obstetrics the sensation, experienced by many women late in pregnancy when the head of the fetus enters the pelvis, of a reduction in pressure on the diaphragm, making it easier to breathe

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012