• (America, British) enPR: shīn, IPA: /ʃaɪn/, /ʃaːɪn/

From Middle English shinen, schinen (preterite schon, past participle schinen), from Old English scīnan “to shine, flash; be resplendent”; preterite scān, past participle scinen, from Proto-West Germanic *skīnan, from Proto-Germanic *skīnaną.

shine (shines, present participle shining; simple past and past participle shone)

1. (intransitive, copulative) To emit or reflect light so as to glow.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC ↗, part I, page 194 ↗:

     The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:

     ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’

2. (intransitive, copulative) To reflect light.
3. (intransitive, copulative) To distinguish oneself; to excel.

   My nephew tried other sports before deciding on football, which he shone at right away, quickly becoming the star of his school team.

4. (intransitive, copulative) To be effulgent in splendour or beauty.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 10:

     So proud she shyned in her Princely state.

   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC ↗:

     Once brightest shined this child of heat and air.

5. (intransitive, copulative) To be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliant intellectual powers.
   • c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects:

     Few are qualified to shine in company; but it in most men's power to be agreeable.

6. (intransitive, copulative) To be immediately apparent.
7. (transitive) To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).

   I shone my light into the darkness to see what was making the noise.

8. (transitive) To cause to shine, as a light or by reflected light.

   in hunting, to shine the eyes of a deer at night by throwing a light on them

   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC ↗:

     He [God] doth not rain wealth, nor shine honour and virtues, upon men equally.

• (to emit light) beam, glow, radiate
• (to reflect light) gleam, glint, glisten, glitter, luster, reflect
• (to distinguish oneself) excel
• (to make smooth and shiny by rubbing) wax, buff, polish, furbish, burnish

• French: briller, luire
• German: leuchten, scheinen
• Italian: brillare, splendere
• Portuguese: brilhar, luzir, resplandecer
• Russian: свети́ть
• Spanish: brillar, lucir

• German: glänzen
• Italian: risplendere
• Portuguese: cintilar
• Russian: блесте́ть

• German: glänzen, brillieren
• Italian: brillare
• Portuguese: sobressair
• Russian: блиста́ть
• Spanish: brillar, sobresalir

• Portuguese: sobressair

• Spanish: alumbrar

shine

1. Brightness from a source of light.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC ↗:

     the distant shine of the celestial city

2. Brightness from reflected light.
3. Excellence in quality or appearance; splendour.
4. Shoeshine.
5. Sunshine.
   • 1685, John Dryden, Sylvae:

     be fair or foul, or rain or shine

6. (slang) Moonshine; illicitly brewed alcoholic drink.
7. (cricket) The amount of shininess on a cricket ball, or on each side of the ball.
8. (slang) A liking for a person; a fancy.

   She's certainly taken a shine to you.

9. (archaic, slang) A caper; an antic; a row.

• (brightness from a source of light) effulgence, radiance, radiancy, refulgence, refulgency
• (brightness from reflected light) luster
• (excellence in quality or appearance) brilliance, splendor
• (shoeshine) See shoeshine
• (sunshine) See sunshine
• (slang: moonshine) See moonshine

• French: éclat
• German: Schein
• Portuguese: brilho
• Russian: свет
• Spanish: brillo

• German: Glanz
• Portuguese: brilho
• Russian: блеск
• Spanish: brillo

• German: Brillanz, Glanz, Bravour
• Portuguese: esplendor
• Russian: блеск

From the noun shine, or perhaps continuing Middle English schinen in its causative uses, from Old English scīn, and also Middle English schenen, from Old English scǣnan, from Proto-Germanic *skainijaną, causative of *skīnaną.

shine (shines, present participle shining; simple past and past participle shined)

1. (transitive) To cause (something) to shine; put a shine on (something); polish (something).

   He shined my shoes until they were polished smooth and gleaming.

2. (transitive, cricket) To polish a cricket ball using saliva and one’s clothing.

• (to polish) polish, smooth, smoothen

• German: polieren, bohnern
• Portuguese: lustrar, polir
• Russian: полирова́ть

1. Surname.

shine

1. (telecommunication) Acronym of single high-impulse noise event

   Coordinate term: REIN