[f. LIGHTEN v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who lightens, makes light, easy, or less grievous; an alleviator.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, Ep. Ded. 78. Learning and her lightener Poesy.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 108. A sweet lightener of my afflictions.
1789. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 9 Jan. What a lightener … would it not be, to this burthening period.
1884. Sala, Journ. due South, I. iv. (1887), 55. An accomplished lightener of the traveller’s purse.
† 2. = LIGHTER sb.1 Obs. (north. dial.)
1558. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 168. ij kealles & a half a lightner & a botte. Ibid. (1592), 252. My clinkere lightner, with all her geare.
1789. Brand, Hist. Newcastle, II. 261, note. Their [the keelmen’s] vessels are called keels or lightners.
