The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lightning \Light"ning\ (l[imac]t"n[i^]ng), n. [For lightening, fr. lighten to flash.]
A discharge of atmospheric electricity, accompanied by a vivid flash of light, commonly from one cloud to another, sometimes from a cloud to the earth. The sound produced by the electricity in passing rapidly through the atmosphere constitutes thunder.
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The act of making bright, or the state of being made bright; enlightenment; brightening, as of the mental powers. [R.]
Ball lightning, a rare form of lightning sometimes seen as a globe of fire moving from the clouds to the earth.
Chain lightning, lightning in angular, zigzag, or forked flashes.
Heat lightning, more or less vivid and extensive flashes of electric light, without thunder, seen near the horizon, esp. at the close of a hot day.
Lightning arrester (Telegraphy), a device, at the place where a wire enters a building, for preventing injury by lightning to an operator or instrument. It consists of a short circuit to the ground interrupted by a thin nonconductor over which lightning jumps. Called also lightning discharger.
Lightning bug (Zo["o]l.), a luminous beetle. See Firefly.
Lightning conductor, a lightning rod.
Lightning glance, a quick, penetrating glance of a brilliant eye.
Lightning rod, a metallic rod set up on a building, or on the mast of a vessel, and connected with the earth or water below, for the purpose of protecting the building or vessel from lightning.
Sheet lightning, a diffused glow of electric light flashing out from the clouds, and illumining their outlines. The appearance is sometimes due to the reflection of light from distant flashes of lightning by the nearer clouds.
Wiktionary
n. Lightning in angular, zigzag, or forked flashes.
WordNet
n. a form of lightning that moves rapidly in a zigzag path with one end divided (fork-like) [syn: forked lightning]
Wikipedia
Chain Lightning is an album by American singer-songwriter Don McLean. It was first released in December 1978 in the UK and other markets, but not released for another two years in the US following its delayed success in European markets. The lead single "Crying" became a major hit for McLean, reaching No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1980. The album was subsequently repackaged and released in the US where it also became a success with "Crying" reaching the top five in early 1981. "Since I Don't Have You" was also released as a single, becoming another big hit.
Chain Lightning is a 1950 American aviation film based on the story "These Many Years" by black-listed writer Lester Cole (under the pseudonym "J. Redmond Prior"); the screenplay was written by Liam O'Brien and Vincent B. Evans. During World War II, Evans had been the bombardier on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Memphis Belle.
The film stars Humphrey Bogart as a test pilot, Eleanor Parker, and Raymond Massey. Cole's credit on the film was officially restored by the Writers Guild of America in 1997, although the only screen versions have "suggested by a story by J. Raymond Prior" listed.
Created in the postwar era to reflect the progress in aviation and aeronautics, it is a fictional account of a US company engaged in creating and producing high-speed jet aircraft. Completed in early 1949, Chain Lightning was one of Bogart's final Warner Bros. films, ending a 20-year association. Due to the appeal of the subject, the film was released in multiple versions for 11 different countries; in Germany, it was known as Des Teufels Pilot.
Chain Lightning may refer to:
- XP-58 Chain Lightning, an American World War II fighter airplane
- Chain Lightning (film), a war film starring Humphrey Bogart
- Chain Lightning (album), by Don McLean
- "Chain Lightning", a Steely Dan song from the album Katy Lied
- "Chain Lightning", a song from Rush's Presto (album)
- "Chain Lighning", a song from Bruce Springsteen's 2015 box set "The Ties That Bind: The River Collection"
- Chain Lightning, an enemy of DC Comics' Captain Marvel
Chain Lightning is a 1927 American silent Western film directed by Lambert Hillyer and written by Lambert Hillyer and Malcolm Stuart Boylan. The film stars Buck Jones, Diane Ellis, Ted McNamara, Jack Baston, William Welsh and Martin Faust. The film was released on August 14, 1927, by Fox Film Corporation.
Chain Lightning is a 1922 silent film melodrama produced and directed by Ben F. Wilson.
Usage examples of "chain lightning".
Halaster looked up at the fiends approaching so carefully-and unleashed chain lightning among them.
This power is usually a protective spell such as ironguard, invisibilitv, or airy water, or a useful effect such as levitate or unseen servant, but sometimes it may be an offensive magic such as chain lightning or cone of old.
In addition to the storm of lightning beneath me, in addition to the rising chain of explosions in every tower of cumulus, in addition to the searing bolts that now laced the towers like a web of firing neurons in a brain gone berserk, bundles of ball lightning and chain lightning suddenly began breaking loose from the clouds and floating in the dark spaces where my kayak flew.
The blinding pyrotechnics escalated into nearly continuous chain lightning, and brilliant links rattled down the heavens as though an evil angel, imprisoned in the storm, were angrily testing his bonds.
Don focusing the full force of his coercion, her fascination and willing surrender, Don laughing as he took her by the rockets' red glare, kindling in her a stupendous series of orgasms like chain lightning.
A chill draft made the lamp flames curtsy in their bowls, and the flicker of it danced like chain lightning down the small silver buckles of Starhawk's doublet.
Even when moving fast - fast, that is, for it - it probably would make a sloth look like chain lightning in comparison.