Kalman has a way of alighting on a moment in history, and animating it with personal details, both true and imagined.
At our alighting I gave him another dab; but it was but a little one.
The dear creature was no less shy when the widow first accosted her at her alighting.
Through a glass, perhaps, even its alighting had been watched.
Again it circled, anxiously, now, as if the time for alighting were short.
alighting from the carriage, I entered, with my host, the cabin of the negro-hunter.
I shouted again, and, alighting, led the horse towards the door.
Then, alighting, they lashed at each other with their swords.
"It was kind of you——" he began as he stood at the cab door after alighting.
Eigil did as he was told, and had a good deal of trouble in alighting.
"to descend, dismount," Old English alihtan, originally "to lighten, take off, take away," from a- "down, aside" (see a- (1)) + lihtan "get off, make light" (see light (v.)). The notion is of getting down off a horse or vehicle, thus lightening it. Of aircraft (originally balloons) from 1786. Related: Alighted; alighting.
"on fire," early 15c., apparently from Middle English aliht, past participle of alihton (Old English on-lihtan) "to light up," also "to shine upon" (see light (n.)).
