Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive & intransitive verb To make or become incandescent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To glow with heat; be or become incandescent.
  • To cause to glow or become incandescent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To cause to be (or to become) incandescent, especially by the application of heat

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to become incandescent or glow
  • verb become incandescent or glow with heat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin incandēscere, to glow : in-, intensive pref.; see in– + candēscere, to glow, inchoative of candēre, to shine; see kand- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • The into incandesce battle suddenly as cut and cover cooling, the battle special quiescence.

    Heroes Man | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

  • Weeks pass without a seizure, then three or four come in a cluster: exhausting episodes, preceded by a minute or two of giddiness during which the train roars toward her and everything seems to speed up and glow, as if the walls of Hirschfeld House might incandesce.

    Memory Wall Anthony Doerr 2010

  • Weeks pass without a seizure, then three or four come in a cluster: exhausting episodes, preceded by a minute or two of giddiness during which the train roars toward her and everything seems to speed up and glow, as if the walls of Hirschfeld House might incandesce.

    Memory Wall Anthony Doerr 2010

  • The reactions when I announce this assignment are mixed: some students just incandesce the moment I start explaining the task.

    Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2007

  • The reactions when I announce this assignment are mixed: some students just incandesce the moment I start explaining the task.

    Archive 2007-03-01 Flavia 2007

  • He saw two brilliant beams of light incandesce across the bay, and he tugged the sleeve of the man next to him, the man he had once mistaken for an angel, and who was now talking rapidly into his radio.

    Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis 2003

  • In July, 1859, he lit up one of the rooms of his house at Salem, Massachusetts, every evening with such lamps, using in them small pieces of platinum and iridium wire, which were made to incandesce by means of current from primary batteries.

    Edison, His Life and Inventions, vol. 1 1910

  • In July, 1859, he lit up one of the rooms of his house at Salem, Massachusetts, every evening with such lamps, using in them small pieces of platinum and iridium wire, which were made to incandesce by means of current from primary batteries.

    Edison, His Life and Inventions Frank Lewis Dyer 1905

  • The molecules incandesce, and burn like true stars with a brilliancy that is often magnificent.

    Astronomy for Amateurs Camille Flammarion 1883

  • And then the stars, grand lighthouses of the Heavens, in their turn incandesce.

    Astronomy for Amateurs Camille Flammarion 1883

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