• Bright

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: brÄ«t, IPA: /bɹaɪt/
    • Rhymes: -aɪt

    Origin

    Old English bryht, metathesis of beorht, from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz (compare Dutch brecht, Norwegian bjart), from pre-Celtic/Germanic *bʰerHgto (compare Welsh berth ("beautiful")), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰereg- ("to gleam, whiten") (compare Middle Irish brafad ("blink of an eye"), Lithuanian brekšta ("to dawn"), Russian брезг (brezg, "dawn, daybreak"), Albanian bardhë ("white"), Persian برازیدن, Sanskrit भ्राजते).

    Full definition of bright

    Adjective

    bright

    1. Visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, clear, radiant; not dark.
      Could you please dim the light? It's far too bright.
      • 1910, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
      • LongfellowThe sun was bright o'erhead.
      • DrakeThe earth was dark, but the heavens were bright.
      • MacaulayThe public places were as bright as at noonday.
    2. Having a clear, quick intellect; intelligent.
      He's very bright. He was able to solve the problem without my help.
      • Joyce Ulysses Episode 16--Ah, God, Corley replied, sure I couldn't teach in a school, man. I was never one of your bright ones, he added with a half laugh.
      • 2013-08-03, Revenge of the nerds, Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
    3. Vivid, colourful, brilliant.
      The orange and blue walls of the sitting room were much brighter than the dull grey walls of the kitchen.
      • Alexander PopeHere the bright crocus and blue violet grew.
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 2, Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
    4. Happy, in .
      I woke up today feeling so bright that I decided to have a little dance.
      • 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, , chapter 11:Their spirits had risen a little at the discovery of the path, but now they sank into their boots; and yet they would not give it up and go away. The hobbit was no longer much brighter than the dwarves. He would do nothing but sit with his back to the rock-face and stare....
    5. Sparkling with wit; lively; vivacious; cheerful.
      • ShakespeareBe bright and jovial among your guests.
    6. Illustrious; glorious.
      • Cottonthe brightest annals of a female reign
    7. Clear; transparent.
      • ThomsonFrom the brightest wines
        He'd turn abhorrent.
    8. (archaic) Manifest to the mind, as light is to the eyes; clear; evident; plain.
      • I. Wattswith brighter evidence, and with surer success

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Noun

    bright

    (plural brights)
    1. An artist's brush used in oil and acrylic painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.
    2. (obsolete) splendour; brightness
      • MiltonDark with excessive bright thy skirts appear.
    3. (neologism) A person with a naturalistic worldview with no supernatural or mystical elements.

    Antonyms

    Hyponyms

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