What's the difference between brighten and lighten?

Brighten


Definition:

  • (a.) To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.
  • (a.) To make illustrious, or more distinguished; to add luster or splendor to.
  • (a.) To improve or relieve by dispelling gloom or removing that which obscures and darkens; to shed light upon; to make cheerful; as, to brighten one's prospects.
  • (a.) To make acute or witty; to enliven.
  • (v. i.) To grow bright, or more bright; to become less dark or gloomy; to clear up; to become bright or cheerful.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The Lewinsky affair did not leave him disillusioned and Engskov's eyes brighten as he recalls his time in Washington: "It was an idealistic time.
  • (2) The fluorescent brightening agent, applied as a counterstain, aided in the location of the specimen.
  • (3) The rustic rooms have clay tiles and wooden furniture, and the walls are brightened up with local fabrics.
  • (4) The taxidermist's eyes brightened, and he led me to a human skeleton half hidden in the back of the room.
  • (5) The nucleus, a huge lump of rock and ice, was several miles wide on its approach to the sun, and brightened as the sun heated it to create an atmosphere, or coma, of ice and dust which was blown away from the sun to form a tail.
  • (6) To assess their potential use as fluorescent stains for flow cytometry, the cell staining specificity of 55 compounds, originally synthesized for use as textile dyes and fluorescent brighteners, was explored and their excitation and emission wavebands determined.
  • (7) The upstairs living room, which I remember from the last time I interviewed her as slightly gloomy, crowded with towers of books and magazines and oppressive paintings and wall hangings, is today brightened by yet more flowers, all in deep shades of orange and red.
  • (8) These results suggest specific properties associated with the brightening and dimming systems.
  • (9) With respect to vital staining the optical brightener Blankophor RKH exhibited most favorable properties.
  • (10) We have so many beautiful things …” She brightens up.
  • (11) We attribute the brightness shift to the saturation of the transient response: a limitation on the maximum transient when responding to rapid brightening or dimming.
  • (12) Facebook Twitter Pinterest New Brighton, Wallasey: the New Brighteners, a self help group formed in the Wirral, have a formed a volunteer group to keep the shore and beaches clean of plastic litter.
  • (13) Add the chopped stems to the onions and continue cooking till they have both softened and brightened.
  • (14) The short-term prospects have undoubtedly brightened.
  • (15) A reduction in the accommodative lag during book retinoscopy would result in brightening of the reflex along with a shift in the "against" direction.
  • (16) Hyper-pigmentation as a manifestation of contact sensitivity to optical brighteners has previously been reported.
  • (17) This polarity-sensitive adaptation fits with Jung's hypothesis that separate channels signal 'brightening' and 'darkening' in the human visual system.
  • (18) Updated at 11.22am BST 10.45am BST Italy brightens the mood Further reaction on the Italian bond sale from Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Strategy.
  • (19) News that Italy had surprisingly fallen back into recession in the second quarter coupled with evidence that the faltering recovery in the eurozone was having a dampening impact on German industry contributed to a downbeat mood brightened only when shares on Wall Street rose in early trading.
  • (20) Instawindow … The cheap and cheerful way to brighten up your view.

Lighten


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To descend; to light.
  • (v. i.) To burst forth or dart, as lightning; to shine with, or like, lightning; to display a flash or flashes of lightning; to flash.
  • (v. i.) To grow lighter; to become less dark or lowering; to brighten; to clear, as the sky.
  • (v. t.) To make light or clear; to light; to illuminate; as, to lighten an apartment with lamps or gas; to lighten the streets.
  • (v. t.) To illuminate with knowledge; to enlighten.
  • (v. t.) To emit or disclose in, or as in, lightning; to flash out, like lightning.
  • (v. t.) To free from trouble and fill with joy.
  • (v. t.) To make lighter, or less heavy; to reduce in weight; to relieve of part of a load or burden; as, to lighten a ship by unloading; to lighten a load or burden.
  • (v. t.) To make less burdensome or afflictive; to alleviate; as, to lighten the cares of life or the burden of grief.
  • (v. t.) To cheer; to exhilarate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Daily subcutaneous injection of L-dopa for 4 weeks into 2-year-old low egg production hens resulted in a lightening of feather color to snow white and increased oviduct and ovary weights and the development of well developed follicles.
  • (2) I ask if he ever wishes the critics would lighten up around him.
  • (3) This unexpected non-linear trend may reflect a progressive tendency toward 'lightening' of sleep with increasing age.
  • (4) Clinical trials on 28 patients with port-wine stains of the face and neck using this laser demonstrated a 75% response rate with greater than 50% lightening of the lesions.
  • (5) Their carefully judged mischief lightened the whole mixture like stiffly beaten egg-whites.
  • (6) But it's also undeniable that Indians who grew up in the 80s and 90s have been in many ways morally and imaginatively conservative: they are the context, for instance, in which wish-fulfilling skin lighteners like Fair & Lovely have flourished.
  • (7) As previously shown with colchicine, preincubation of frog skin with vinblastine, vincristine, or colcemid produced an increase in darkening induced by MSH, as compared to control skins, and a dosage-dependent inhibition of subsequent lightening.
  • (8) Skin-lightening creams are widely used in Taiwan, but their content is poorly controlled.
  • (9) Patients aged between 3 months and 6 years (44 patients) had a better response after the first treatment (55% lightening) than did patients aged between 7 and 14 years (29 patients with a 48% lightening; p = 0.027).
  • (10) By sharing the load, we lighten the load – and together we can chip away at the debt and deficits that are currently costing Australians $1bn every single month in interest, in dead money,” Abbott said in a YouTube video released on Monday.
  • (11) This difference in density is not related to increased sensitivity to ionizing radiation but the degree of post-irradiation change in density (lightening) is proportional to the initial density, i.e.
  • (12) Following a complete repair, the anesthesia of the mothers was allowed to lighten.
  • (13) Forty-one over-the-counter skin lightening creams were analysed for hydroquinone content, and the accuracy of tables of contents supplied with these products was assessed.
  • (14) Advocates of open adoption believe that it lightens and in some cases alleviates the grieving process after relinquishment.
  • (15) In his speech, Hunt also called for the regulatory burden to be lightened for broadcasters to allow them to be more flexible and said Ofcom would be slimmed down under a Tory government.
  • (16) The court said his sentence was lightened because he was an accessory to the murder, not the instigator, and because he had confessed and shown remorse.
  • (17) Over a couple of pints, we cover all the big stuff: Victoria Beckham, rivers of blood, what it'll be like being deputy PM to Boris ("Boris needs me; he needs lightening up"), and the attempt to ban menthol cigarettes .
  • (18) This article describes a simple way to circumvent major internal alteration to the Blue Ray copier to permit an easy and effective lightening process.
  • (19) A properly functioning general-practitioner hospital with good facilities including visiting consultants can greatly lighten the work load of the district general hospital.
  • (20) Substantial lightening or total clearing occurred in 18 (78%) of 23 amateur tattoos and 3 (23%) of 13 professional tattoos in which the protocol was completed.