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A peculiar luminous apearance, or aureola, which surrounds the sun, and which is seen only when the sun is totally eclipsed by the moon.

ch wake, or the customary watching with a corpse on the night before its interment. (b) A luminous appearance, resembling the flame of a candle, sometimes seen in churchyards and other damp places, superstitiously regarded as portending death. -- Corpse gate, the gate of a burial place through which the dead are carri…

Pertaining to twilight; glimmering; hence, imperfectly clear or luminous. This semihistorical and crepuscular period. Sir G. C. Lewis.

y good work so much depends. South. Critical angle (Optics), that angle of incidence of a luminous ray at which it is wholly reflected, and no portion of it transmitted. The sine of this angle is the reciprocal of the refractive index of the medium. -- Critical philosophy, the metaphysical system of Kant; -- so called…

ng, or causing to turn, toward the right hand; esp., turning the plane of polarization of luminous rays toward the right hand; as, dextrorotatory crystals, sugars, etc. Cf. Levorotatory.

Not bright or distinct; wanting luminousness or clearness; obscure in luster or sound; dusky; darkish; obscure; indistinct; overcast; tarnished. The dim magnificence of poetry. Whewell. How is the gold become dim! Lam. iv. 1. I never saw The heavens so dim by day. Shak. Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, T…

A luminous exhalation from marshy grounds.

A luminous exhalation from marshy grounds, seeming to move through the air as a winged serpent.

Partially dark or obscure; not luminous; dusk; as, a dusky valley. Through dusky lane and wrangling mart. Keble.

An interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention of some other body, either between it and the eye, or between the luminous body and that illuminated by it. A lunar eclipse is caused by the moon passing through the earth's shadow; a solar eclipse, by the moon com…

Diffusing a flood of light; shining; luminous; beaming; bright; splendid. "Effulgent rays of light." Cowper.

laining the phenomena of double refraction and their relation to the elastic force of the luminous ether in crystalline media.

Pertaining to one of the four elements, air, water, earth, fire. "Some luminous and fiery impressions in the elementary region." J. Spencer.

A very brilliantly luminous beetle (Pyrophorus noctilucus), one of the elaters, found in Central and South America; -- called also cucujo. The name is also applied to other species. See Firefly.

A luminous meteor, resembling a ball of fire passing rapidly through the air, and sometimes exploding.

Any luminous winged insect, esp. luminous beetles of the family Lampyridæ.

The ponderousness or bulk of a folio; voluminousness. [R.] De Quincey.

The Milky Way; that luminous tract, or belt, which is seen at night stretching across the heavens, and which is composed of innumerable stars, so distant and blended as to be distinguishable only with the telescope. The term has recently been used for remote clusters of stars. Nichol.

d with platinum electrodes, and containing some gas under very low tension, which becomes luminous when an electrical discharge is passed through it; -- so called from the name of a noted maker in germany. It is called also Plücker tube, from the German physicist who devised it.

A luminous circle, usually prismatically colored, round the sun or moon, and supposed to be caused by the refraction of light through crystals of ice in the atmosphere. Connected with halos there are often white bands, crosses, or arches, resulting from the same atmospheric conditions.