From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishalighta‧light1 /əˈlaɪt/ ●○○ adjective [not before noun] 1 BURNburning The car was set alight and pushed over a hill.RegisterAlight is mostly used in journalism or in literature. In everyday English, people usually say on fire:The car had been deliberately set on fire.2 EXCITEDHAPPY literary someone whose face or eyes are alight looks excited, happy, etcalight with excitement/pleasure/laughter etc Jed’s face was alight with excitement.3 BRIGHT literary bright with light or colour
Examples from the Corpus
alight• A single standard lamp was alight.• Further timber was then heaped round the base, soaked in paraffin and then set alight.• Mr Chittenden had already doused himself in a flammable liquid and set himself alight.• Often she fell asleep with the candle still alight.• She waited until he grew nearer and then walked up to him, her face alight.• But it stayed alight and soon began to burn merrily.• He broke in, set a parachute alight and then went back to start a better one.• Something else was alight in the undergrowth.set alight• The bank was set alight 20 years ago and continues to smoulder.• Houses and cars were set alight.• Further timber was then heaped round the base, soaked in paraffin and then set alight.• Some accounts say that the fire engines were attacked, overturned, and set alight.• Burning car: Thieves set alight a stolen car in a field near Stokesley.• As the final starbursts exploded above the ferry, the fishing boat was set alight and slowly began to sink.• Bales of hay and tyres were set alight, damaging the entrance of one office.• But it's the first time a cell has been set alight since the brand new modern jail was opened.• The sun set alight the water drops that speckled their leaves and shadowed the ground beneath them.alightalight2 verb [intransitive] formal 1 DOWNif a bird or insect alights on something, it stops flying and stands on it SYN land2 GET ON OR OFF A BUS, PLANE ETCto step out of a vehicle after a journeyalight from She alighted from the train at 74th Street. → alight on/upon something→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
alight• As the tram was between stops, they were unable to alight.• We alighted from the aircraft steps on to the only paved surface on the island.• Before I could alight from the carriage she was hastily walking away.• Then a great orange-and-black butterfly alighted on her knee.• When Carver alighted outside the Hilton in Park Lane the limo drove past at speed.• A returning female alights within a few feet of where she last left her baby.Origin alight1 (1400-1500) Probably from a- + light alight2 Old English alihtan, from lihtan “to alight” 