Q. I’m trying to get clarification on the shined/shone issue, as all the sources I have found seem to differ, and it is driving me crazy. Can you confirm for me, once and for all, the use of each of these? Would the following sentence use shined or shone, for instance? Mary shone/shined the flashlight in front of them to light the way.
A. Please see CMOS 5.250:
shine. When this verb is intransitive, it means “to give or make light”; the past tense is shone {the stars shone dimly}. When it is transitive, it means “to cause to shine”; the past tense is shined {the caterer shined the silver}.
So the flashlight shone (gave or made light) because Mary shined it (caused it to shine) in front of them. (Note that “causing something to shine” has more than one meaning. Presumably, Mary didn’t shine her flashlight along with her forks.)