illume

English

Etymology

Clipping of illumine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈluːm/, /ɪˈljuːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːm

Verb

illume (third-person singular simple present illumes, present participle illuming, simple past and past participle illumed)

1. (archaic, usually poetic or figurative) To throw or spread light upon; to make light or bright.

   Synonyms: illuminate, illumine

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 152:

     Laſt night of all, / When yond ſame Starre that's Weſtward from the Pole / Had made his courſe t’illume that part of Heauen / Where now it burnes, / Marcellus and my ſelfe, / The Bell then beating one.

   • 1819, Samuel Mcpherson Janney, “The last of the Lenapé, and Other Poems”, in Electricity:

     How dread the thunder's peal that rolls above !
     How bright the flashes that illume the sky !

   • 1840 March, Robert Browning, “Book the Third”, in Sordello, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 123:

     Brighter the sun illumed the suburbs, more / Ugly and absolute that shade's reproof […]

   • 1915, Alfred Emanuel Smith, New Outlook, volume 109:

     At night there is no light in this building, but searchlights from distant points illume the splendid dome and the colonnades.

Derived terms

• reillume
• unillumed

Noun

illume (uncountable)

1. (archaic, usually poetic or figurative) Illumination.
   • 1838, James Struthers, “The Woes of Separation. A Tale. Addressed to Separation.”, in Poetic Tales: with Other Poems and Songs, Glasgow: […] Bell and Bain, part IV, page 37:

     Till lo! at once broad through the gloom, / The lightnings flash’d their dread illume, / Full on a rock by copse embound, / And tore and whirl’d its ruins round; […]

   • c. 1882, Emily Dickinson, “An Ablative Estate”, in M[abel] L[oomis] Todd and M[illicent] T[odd] Bingham, editors, Bolts of Melody, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, published 1945, page 294:

     The abdication of belief / Makes the behavior small – / Better an ignis fatuus / Than no illume at all.

   • 1887, anonymous author, “The Finding”, in Apotheosis of an Ideal. An Interior-Life Drama., Boston, Mass.: […] [David Clapp and Son], →OCLC, pages 38–39:

     What, in the glowing constellation / Of gem-thoughts studding all high aspire throughout the ages / More truly is the lamp / Lit in the illume of the empyrean / That brightest gleams / Athwart the darksome way of every questor / Intent upon the holy mount of Truth?

   • 1913, Mary Robertine Stokes, “These Dear Old Fields of Kent”, in On a Green Slope: […], Boston, Mass.: Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, page 30:

     The silver on the leaves, the clover in the mist, / The light Acadian troll of winging lutanist; / Along an orchard’s path the fireweed’s orange flare, / Upon a mood’s gloom the illume of turquoise air.