irradiate

adj

1. (literary, poetic)Made brilliant or bright; irradiated, illuminated.

   “There ſeek the Theban Bard, depriv'd of ſight, / VVithin, irradiate vvith prophetic light; […]”

   “The co-existent Flame / Knew the Destroyer; it encircled him, / Roll'd up his robe, and gathered round his head, / Condensing to intenser splendour there, / His crown of glory, and his light of life, / Hovered the irradiate wreath.”

   “When, disappearing from our hemisphere, / The world's enlightener vanishes, and day / On all sides wasteth, suddenly the sky, / Erewhile irradiate only with his beam, / Is yet again unfolded, putting forth / Innumerable lights wherein one shines.”

2. (figuratively, literary, poetic)Made splendid or wonderful.

verb

1. (literary, poetic, transitive)To send out (heat, light, or some other form of radiation) in the form of rays; to radiate.
2. (literary, often, poetic, transitive)To make (someone or something) bright by shining light on them or it; to brighten, to illuminate.

   “Such vvere thy gifts, Pedmálá, ſuch thy povv'r! / For, vvhen thy smile irradiates yon blue fields, / Obſervant Indra ſends the genial ſhovv'r.”

   “Thou cheerful light of day! […] thou ſplendid luminary of Natur! thou no longer irradiateſt my eyes or exhilarateſt my ſoul! The ſeaſons ſtill follovv each other, and year ſucceeds to year; but to me day no more returns.”

   “Who hath watched / The midnight lightnings of the summer storm, / That, with their aweful blaze, irradiate heaven, / Then leave a blacker night?”

   “He saw her image in the blight and blackness all around him, not irradiating but deepening the gloom.”

   “Hail, all hail, O sun, that suscitates and circumscribes life; hail, O fountain of life and death! […] At times, a little cloud, emanation of terrestrial vapor, shadowed those vaults destined to thee alone, and thou irradiatedst it with such splendor, that it seemed the brow of innocence; but it blackened as ingratitude, and waged war against thy rays.”

3. (literary, poetic, transitive)To apply radiation other than visible light to (someone or something).

   “An inherent protection in labeling of the shipping containers will be the prevention of irradiating the commodity again, insuring that the produce has been treated within the safety limits established by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration].”

4. (literary, poetic, transitive)To apply radiation other than visible light to (someone or something).
5. (figuratively, literary, often, poetic, transitive)To animate or enliven (one's mood, or soul or spirit).

   “[…] I therefore beseech God to give you his grace and blessing, and the influence of his blessed Spirit, that you may subdue and conquer the temperament of your nature, to do all things well-pleasing to him, and that may irradiate and strengthen your souls and direct you in all things, for there is none that teacheth like him.”

6. (figuratively, literary, often, poetic, transitive)To cause (one's face) to look beautiful, happy, or lively; to light up.

   “[W]e regarded with awe and reverence the sublime features of Madame Columbus, now irradiated with triumph.”

7. (figuratively, literary, often, poetic, transitive)To decorate (a place) splendidly.

   “No vveeping orphan ſavv his father's ſtores / Our ſhrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors; […]”

8. (figuratively, literary, often, poetic, transitive)To enlighten (someone, their mind, etc.) intellectually or spiritually; to illuminate, to shed light on.

   “This book might irradiate your mind”

   “And indeed we ought, in these happy intervals, when our understandings are thus irradiated and enlightened, to make a judgment of the state and condition of our souls in the sight of God, and not to take our estimate of it when our understandings are eclipsed, and we are overshadowed with a dark cloud of sadness and melancholy.”

   “For him, in one dear Presence, there exists / A virtue which irradiates and exalts / Objects through widest intercourse of sense.”

   “Nevertheless, she seemed to him so new to life, so truly a child—a reason, doubtless, more urgent to uphold and lend her his protection: the ray of humanity irradiating her features—the exclamation that burst from her, upon his first arousing from the torpor of insensibility, whilst extended in his narrow hammock on ship-board, had ever since left impressions of gratitude on his memory.”

   “He [Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet] first irradiated the entire annals of antiquity down to the age of Charlemagne with flashes of light that reveal an unity and coherence which had been lost in their magnitude and obscurity.”

9. (figuratively, literary, often, poetic, transitive)To send out (something) as if in the form of rays; to diffuse, to radiate, to shed.

   “Mercury in any geniture, if he ſhall be found in Virgo, or Piſces his oppoſite ſigne, and that in the Horoſcope, irradiated by thoſe quartile aspects of Saturne or Mars, the childe ſhall be mad or melancholy.”

   “[H]is ideal of grandeur was a splendid façade, diffusing its brilliancy outward too, irradiating hospitality.”

10. (figuratively, literary, obsolete, poetic, transitive)To influence (something) as if with rays of heat, light, etc.

    “[T]he neighbouring Spermatick Veſſels are irradiated and virtuated by the kidneys, even as the Brain irradiates the lovver Parts, by an inbred property reſembling light.”

    “There muſt be antecedent to it that Ethereal or Solar heat, that muſt digeſt, influence, irradiate, and put theſe more ſimple parts of Matter into motion and coalition: […]”

11. (intransitive, literary, often, poetic)To become bright; to brighten, to light up.
12. (intransitive, literary, often, poetic)Often followed by on or upon: to emit rays of light; to shine.
13. (figuratively, intransitive, literary, often, poetic)To emit something other than light; to radiate.

    “[T]he pleaſures of ſenſe have no reliſh vvhere thou [Jesus] irradiateſt and teſtifieſt vvith our conſcience, that vve are the children of God, and have done thy vvill ſincerely, […]”

14. (intransitive, literary, obsolete, often, poetic)To diverge or be sent out in the form of rays.

    “[…] Moſes by approaching to God in the Mount, had a Communication of Glory or Light from him, vvhich irradiated from his Face vvhen he deſcended from the Mount.”