Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Lightsome
Light′some
(līt′sŭm)
, Adj.
1.
Having light; lighted; not dark or gloomy; bright.
White walls make rooms more
lightsome
than black. Bacon.
2.
Gay; airy; cheering; exhilarating.
– Light′some-ly
, adv.
Light′some-ness
, Noun.
Happiness may walk soberly in dark attire, as well as dance
lightsomely
in a gala dress. Hawthorne.
Webster 1828 Edition
Lightsome
LIGHTSOME
,Adj.
1.
Luminous; not dark; not obscure.White walls make rooms more lightsome than black. [Little used.]
The lightsome realms of love.
[In the latter passage, the word is elegant.]
2.
Gay; airy; cheering; exhilarating.That lightsome affection of joy.
Definition 2024
lightsome
lightsome
English
Adjective
lightsome (comparative more lightsome, superlative most lightsome)
- Characterised by light; luminous; emitting or manifesting light; radiant.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:
- While in their mothers wombe enclosd they were, / Ere they into the lightsom world were brought, / In fleshly lust were mingled both yfere […].
- 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, xlix:
- This said, the smoky cloud was cleft and torn, / Which like a veil upon them stretched lay, // And up to open heav'n forthwith was borne, / And left the prince in view of lightsome day.
- 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p.105:
- There came a day when he remembered the moment, when he regretted that he had not ridden off into the buoyant midst of these lightsome elements.
- 2006, Goswin (of Bossut.), Martinus Cawley, Send me God:
- If any find it incredible that Ida be even outwardly so lightsome that she saw clearly in the night, let them answer this question.
- 2009, David Rooney, The wine of certitude:
- The literal sense of the Greek is: “If therefore thy whole body is lightsome, having no part darksome, thy whole body will be lightsome, as when the lamp lightens thee with its flashing.”
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:
Antonyms
Derived terms
Etymology 2
From light (“not heavy”, adjective) + -some.
Adjective
lightsome (comparative more lightsome, superlative most lightsome)
- Upbeat; cheery; light graceful.
- 1983, Raimon Panikkar, The Vedic experience:
- Reality is lightsome, that is, light and graceful.... Moreover, the play, the lightsome character of reality, would be misunderstood if this dimension were to be severed from what really makes a play a play, [...]
- 1999, Thomas Middleton, David M. Bevington, Kathleen McLuskie, Plays on women - Page 69:
- When I was of your youth, I was lightsome and quick two years before I was married.
- 1983, Raimon Panikkar, The Vedic experience: