Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
shine (v.)
This strong verb now has a full set of weak forms as well: past tense and past participle are each either shined or shone. There is some interchangeability in those forms, but there are also some semantic distinctions. It’s always He shined his shoes (never He shone his shoes), but it can be The sun shined all day, although The sun shone all day is more frequent. Nor is it simply the transitive/intransitive distinction that governs choice: transitive He shined his light into the cellar and He shone his light into the cellar are both acceptable (although British English uses shone almost exclusively in such sentences). Intransitive sentences can use either shined or shone, but shone is more prevalent, especially in Edited English, unless the meaning is “to polish”: His cheeks shone with embarrassment. With wax and elbow grease we shined all day.
