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.
li'tesome.
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)

  1. 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.”
Antonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From light (not heavy, adjective) + -some.

Adjective

lightsome (comparative more lightsome, superlative most lightsome)

  1. 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.
Derived terms