Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make or become bright or brighter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To grow bright or more bright; become less dark or gloomy: literally or figuratively.
- To make bright or brighter in any manner; shed light on; make to shine; increase the luster of.
- To dispel gloom from; cheer; make gay or cheerful: as, to brighten prospects.
- To make illustrious or more distinguished; heighten the splendor of; add luster to.
- To make acute or witty; sharpen the faculties of.
- To add brilliancy to the colors of (prints, etc.), by boiling them in a solution of soda.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To make bright or brighter in color
- v. transitive To add luster or splendor to
- v. transitive (figuratively) To make more cheerful and pleasant; to enliven
- v. intransitive To grow bright, or more bright in color; to clear up
- v. intransitive To become brighter or more cheerful in mood
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.
- v. To make illustrious, or more distinguished; to add luster or splendor to.
- v. To improve or relieve by dispelling gloom or removing that which obscures and darkens; to shed light upon; to make cheerful.
- v. To make acute or witty; to enliven.
- v. To grow bright, or more bright; to become less dark or gloomy; to clear up; to become bright or cheerful.
WordNet 3.0
- v. become clear
- v. make lighter or brighter
Etymologies
- Anglo-Saxon beorhtan. bright + -en (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Cretak allowed her expression to brighten, as if with great relief.”
“Proponents urge us to "brighten" clouds by spraying up droplets of sea water, as scientists are now trying to do with a little help from Bill Gates.”
“I like lime wedge or even a cucumber slice in my water ... do you have any favorite ways to 'brighten' a plain glass of water?”
“IF I wanted to "brighten" up my pesto a bit I would stick it back in my food processor and add a bit more lime juice I love the brightness of lime juice in pesto and that's it.”
“Just kind of brighten you up a little, here on this Sunday morning.”
“I say Jared, because whenever I got bogged down, he was there to kind of brighten me up.”
For the Children: Lessons from a Visionary Principal; How We Can Save Our Public School
“The face, at this moment, was a sad one, but its lines expressed no weak surrender to dolefulness; her lips were courageous, and her eyes such as brighten readily with joy.”
“GHS Fast Fret Claims to smooth the feel of the strings, making them easier to fret and play, clean them, reduce the noise, 'brighten' the instruments sound and condition the fretboard and neck.”
“Really, the only way to "brighten" the room, since everything else is already light, is to deal with the cabinets. mschatelaine on September 4th 2009 at 8: 34am view mschatelaine's”
“What will "brighten" the commute, Mayor, is less vehicles, more HOV/carpool lanes, better bus service, and a taxi-sharing service.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘brighten’.
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Suffix -en
-en
verb: to cause, to become
adjective: materialglisten, hasten, heighten, lengthen, mositen, silken, sharpen, sweeten, woolen, woven, moisten, darken and 4 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, B
bloviate, bejesus, brouhaha, behoove, bodacious, bamboozle, banshee, bub, bolus, blob, bubbly, bleb and 414 more...
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lux
All things light-filled and radiant.
scintillate, radiate, elucidate, emanate, illuminate, sparkling, sparkle, glitter, glittering, glisten, shine, brighten and 97 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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the things that you do
relate, immure, resemble, brighten, lighten, darken, magnify, anticipate, illuminate, fly, hesitate, accept and 74 more...
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to nounen and adjectiven
Verbs constructed with the -en suffix.
hearten, gladden, flatten, smarten, blacken, frighten, lighten, brighten, liven, shorten, heighten, fatten and 23 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for brighten.

look_it_up_family I've never before seen this use of "brighten" to mean something like ameliorate:
"They drank linden tea to brighten a cold or tame the nerves." The Zookeeper's Wife, pg 21
I like the synonym "ameliorate" because this use of brighten was in the context of linden honey and its uses. Mar 31, 2009