lightning

Etymology

From light(e)n + -ing.

noun

1. A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.
   Although we did not see the lightning, we did hear the thunder.
   It was the thought of hot July and August days, when the clouds piled up like woolly mountains, and lightnings streaked the sky. 1901, E. L. Morris, The Child's Eden, page 16
   "Ruu": The adults in the village all said that children like me could calm the lightning and turn the storms into timely rain. 2021-10-13, Genshin Impact, v2.2, miHoYo, iOS, Android, Windows, PS4, level/area: The Sun-Wheel and Mt. Kanna
2. A discharge of this kind.
   The lightning was hot enough to melt the sand.
   That tree was hit by lightning.
   The rain at length ceased; and the lightnings, as they played along the black parapet of clouds, that lay piled in the east, shone with less dazzling fierceness, […] 1881, Daniel Pierce Thompson, The Green Mountain Boys, page 281
3. (figurative) Anything that moves very fast.
4. Obsolete form of lightening.

adj

1. Extremely fast or sudden; moving (as if) at the speed of lightning.
   The insurgents then began their lightning advance along the Euphrates in the Sunni heartland toward Baghdad. 2018, Nader Uskowi, Temperature Rising, page 69

verb

1. (impersonal, childish or nonstandard, intransitive) To produce lightning.
   Or if it thundered and lightninged, Aunt Frances always dropped everything she might be doing and held Elizabeth Ann tightly in her arms until it was all over. 1916, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy
   The next day, though it is not only raining but thundering and lightninging as well, antiquing is seen by three-fourths of those present as a lesser evil than free play. 1968, Dan Greenburg, Chewsday: a sex novel
   "Hey!" yelled Reggie, pulling her back. "Get in here! It's lightninging. I don't want a charcoal-broiled friend!" 1987, Tricia Springstubb, Eunice Gottlieb and the unwhitewashed truth about life
   I don't know, Father, but believe me, it has been a horrible night — one that I'll never forget. It thundered and lightninged, and I was very hungry. 1988, Carlo Collodi, Roberto Innocenti, The adventures of Pinocchio