different between afire vs alight

English

Etymology

13^thc., from a- (“on”) +? fire. Figurative usage from late 14^thc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??fa??(?)/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)

Adverb

afire (comparative more afire, superlative most afire)

1. On fire (often metaphorically).

Adjective

afire (comparative more afire, superlative most afire)

1. On fire (often metaphorically).

Quotations

• 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 1857, Seventh Book, p. 275^[1]:

  […] Earth’s crammed with heaven, / And every common bush afire with God:

• 1931, Nacio Herb Brown and Gordon Clifford, “Paradise” (song first sung by Pola Negri and later covered by Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra):

  Her eyes afire / With one desire. / Then a heavenly kiss: / Could I resist?

• 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, Chapter 63:

  Old claw-like hands, cracked with long years of thankless toil, would hold aloft a delicate bird of wood, its wings, as thin as paper, spread for flight, its breast afire with a crimson stain.

Synonyms

• ablaze
• aflame

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Arfie, Feria, Freia, faire, feria, rafie

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?-l?t', IPA^(key): /??la?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English alighten, from a merger of Old English ?l?htan (“to alight, dismount”), from prefix ?- (compare Gothic ????????- (us-), German er- originally meaning "out") + l?htan (“to alight”); and Old English ?el?htan (“to alight, approach, come, come down, dismount”); equivalent to a- +? light (“to dismount”).

Verb

alight (third-person singular simple present alights, present participle alighting, simple past and past participle alighted or alit)

1. (intransitive, alone or with from) To get off or exit a vehicle or animal; to descend; to dismount.

   Passengers are alighting from the carriage.

2. (intransitive, with on or at) To descend and settle, lodge, rest, or stop.
   • 1886-88, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night:

     Now when he had reached the King's capital wherein was Alaeddin, he alighted at one of the Kháns; and, when he had rested from the weariness of wayfare, he donned his dress and went down to wander about the streets, where he never passed a group without hearing them prate about the pavilion and its grandeur and vaunt the beauty of Alaeddin and his lovesomeness, his liberality and generosity, his fine manners and his good morals.
3. (intransitive, followed by upon) To find by accident; to come upon.
4. (intransitive) To befall or betide.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.iii:

     His fearefull friends weare out the wofull night, / Ne dare to weepe, nor seeme to vnderstand / The heauie hap, which on them is alight, / Affraid, least to themselues the like mishappen might.

Synonyms

• unlight

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English alighten, from a merger of Old English ?l?htan (“to lighten, relieve, alleviate, take off, take away, alight”) and Old English ?el?htan (“to lighten, mitigate, assuage”); equivalent to a- +? light.

Verb

alight (third-person singular simple present alights, present participle alighting, simple past and past participle alighted)

1. (transitive) To make light or less heavy; lighten; alleviate.

Etymology 3

From Middle English alighten, from Old English ?l?htan (“to light up, enlighten”); equivalent to a- +? light. Cognate with German erleuchten (“to light up, illuminate”).

Verb

alight (third-person singular simple present alights, present participle alighting, simple past and past participle alit or alighted)

1. (transitive) To light; light up; illuminate.
2. (transitive) To set light to; light.

Etymology 4

From Middle English alight, from Old English *?l?hted, past participle of ?l?htan (“to alight”); see above.

Alternative forms

• alighted

Adjective

alight (not comparable)

1. Lit, on fire, switched on.
2. (figuratively) Lit; on fire, burning.

Usage notes

Used only as a predicative.

Translations

References

• “alight”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.