eOE Royal Psalter lxxvii. 14 Eduxit eos in nube diei et tota nocte in inluminatione ignis : he lædde hy on genipe dæges & ealre nihte on alyhtinge fyres.

OE Paris Psalter (1932) lxxxix. 8 Þu ure unriht eall asettest, þær þu sylfa to eagum locadest, and ure worulde þu eac gestaðelodest on alihtincge [L. in inluminatione] andwlitan þines.

1340 Ayenbite (1866) 204 (MED) Huo þet wile quenche þet uer of lecherie, he mot do away þe aliȝtynges [Fr. alumailles] þet norisseþ zuych ver.

1340 Ayenbite (1866) 221 To moche drinke, and to moche ethe is grat aliȝtinge to þe uere of lecherie.

c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 8859 (MED) In þe..enleuene hondred ȝer & seuene of ur louerdes aliȝtinge [c1425 Harl. alyȝtyn].

1548 W. Thomas Ital. Gram. & Dict. Scesa, the alightyng or commyng downe.

1592 Greenes Groats-worth of Witte sig. D^v She mockt me with her Mayde in steade of her selfe, whome when I knew at her alighting, I disdained to bring her vnto his presence.

1631 W. Saltonstall Picturæ Loquentes sig. Eiij^v At your first alighting hee straight offers you to see a Chamber.

1662 Life & Death Mrs. Mary Frith 144 And taking her from her Gentleman Usher, who attended her alighting, led her by the Arm into the Church.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iii. ii. 15 I..was drawn up by Pullies. At my alighting I was surrounded by a Crowd of People.

1791 Asiatick Researches 2 304 Menzil, or the place of alighting, properly signifies a station or stage.

1848 Spectator 8 July 658/2 At some Metropolitan stations the arrangements for the alighting of passengers are very defective.

1895 T. Beven Negligence in Law II. v. iii. 1194 Some additional precaution being taken by the [railway] company before the proper time for alighting arrived.

1935 Times 10 Jan. 7/3 (headline) Duties of tramcar conductors. Magistrate on alighting of passengers.

1997 Z-7 & Z-9 Express Line Bus Schedule (Washington, D.C.) 29 June 3 No boarding or alighting between Colesville Road and Spring Street.

1628 G. Wither Britain's Remembrancer ii. f. 54 God heeds those things that are so small, As birds alightings, and as haires that fall.

1757 Philos. Trans. 1756 (Royal Soc.) 49 685 Nor had his servants observed any motion in it [sc. a pond], unless what was occasioned by the alighting of the ducks.

1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. III. lxii. 23 On the alighting of this sacred house from its aerial journey, all the trees and shrubs in the wood bowed with the greatest reverence.

1810 Jrnl. Nat. Philos. Feb. 84 When the velocity is becoming less, as in the act of alighting, then the rudder must gradually recede from this position.

1864 T. L. Nichols 40 Years Amer. Life I. xvii. 217 Their wheelings and alightings in the water to gobble up every particle of food thrown overboard.

1906 Z. Gale Romance Island xiii. 249 So lightly did they leap upward that the jar of their alighting was hardly perceptible.

1914 Aeronaut. Jrnl. 18 315 Carriage, that part of the aircraft..intended..to absorb the shock of alighting.

1971 Country Life 6 May 1075/1 The wagtail has fewer alighting places, the waterhen fewer ponds.

2008 M. C. Singer et al. in K. J. Tilmon Specialization, Speciation, & Radiation xxii. 313/1 Butterflies fly sufficiently slowly that they can be followed during oviposition search and their alightings recorded.

1780 J. Keys Pract. Bee-master iv. 40 A small slip of wood..will be required as an alighting-board for the Bees to pitch on when they return from the fields.

1855 Poultry Chron. 3 61/2 It [sc. a bee] has measured every inch of the alighting-board, and now it flies off.

1919 Poultry Herald Dec. 374/1 The alighting boards..may be left down so that the hens can enter.

1999 E. Crane World Hist. Beekeeping & Honey Hunting v. xxvi. 235 Horizontal hives now in museums in Gothenberg and Varberg..have an integral alighting board.

1908 Autocar 19 Dec. 1000/2 Taking the gliding gradient tan γ for the Wright machine as .155..we may roughly look upon the resistance as accounted for as follows:..Alighting gear.

1931 Lima (Ohio) News 5 Oct. 1/8 (headline) Birdmen escape injury when craft brought down minus alighting gear.

1974 H. A. Taylor Fairey Aircraft since 1915 158 ‘Solid’ tail-float and plain wingtip floats..provide a ‘safety-first’ alighting gear.

2009 R. A. Mann B-29 Superfortress Chronology 21 For support on the ground, the B-29 depends on an electrically-retractable, tricycle type alighting gear.

1807 J. Barlow Columbiad vi. 216 Earth heaves and cracks beneath the alighting god.

1864 Sheffield & Rotherham Independent 15 July 2/4 He could mix with the other alighting passengers and hand his ticket to the collector.

1871 Mrs. H. Wood Dene Hollow I. iv. 100 Mary Barber, excessively aggravated to find herself in the very midst of the alighting company.

1938 Life 4 Apr. 72/3 (caption) When the train pulls in, he dashes up to make sure he will be first on. Then he has to back down as he sees an alighting passenger come down the aisle.

2008 B. Berkebile et al. in S. R. Kellert et al. Biophilic Design xxiii. 353/1 From the budding of small Talinum flowers to the serendipity of an alighting butterfly.