Search the Dictionary

A nearly pellucid variety of feldspar, showing pearly or opaline reflections from within. It is used as a gem. The best specimens come from Ceylon.

The hard pearly internal layer of several kinds of shells, esp. of pearl oysters, river mussels, and the abalone shells; nacre. See Pearl.

A pearly substance which lines the interior of many shells, and is most perfect in the mother-of-pearl. [Written also nacker and naker.] See Pearl, and Mother-of-pearl.

Consisting of, or resembling, nacre; pearly.

A genus of small marine bivalve shells, having a pearly interior.

A reflection of a milky or pearly light from the interior of a mineral, as in the moonstone; the state or quality of being opalescent.

Reflecting a milky or pearly light from the interior; having an opaline play of colors.

Methyl oxamate, obtained as a pearly white crystalline substance.

They are irregular in form, and attach themselves to rocks like oysters, but they have a pearly interior, and are allied to the fresh-water mussels. -- Oyster bed, a breeding place for oysters; a place in a tidal river or other water on or near the seashore, where oysters are deposited to grow and fatten for market.…

-- Pearl moth (Zoöl.), any moth of the genus Margaritia; -- so called on account of its pearly color. -- Pearl oyster (Zoöl.), any one of several species of large tropical marine bivalve mollusks of the genus Meleagrina, or Margaritifera, found in the East Indies (especially at Ceylon), in the Persian Gulf, on the c…

Having a pearly speck in the eye; afflicted with the cataract.

Resembling pearl or mother-of-pearl; pearly in quality or appearance.

A glassy volcanic rock of a grayish color and pearly luster, often having a spherulitic concretionary structure due to the curved cracks produced by contraction in cooling. See Illust. under Perlitic.

Pearly; resembling pearl.

A pearly crystalline substance obtained by the decomposition of phillyrin.

A kind of mica having generally a peculiar bronze-red or copperlike color and a pearly luster. It is a silicate of aluminia, with magnesia, potash, and some fluorine. It is characteristic of crystalline limestone or dolomite and serpentine. See Mica.

A mineral, usually of a white or greenish color and pearly luster, consisting chiefly of the hydrous silicate of alumina.

ny marine gastropod shell of the genus Monodonta. They are top-shaped, bright-colored and pearly.

.) See Honesty, 4. -- Satin spar. (Min.) (a) A fine fibrous variety of calcite, having a pearly luster. (b) A similar variety of gypsum. -- Satin sparrow (Zoöl.), the shining flycatcher (Myiagra nitida) of Tasmania and Australia. The upper surface of the male is rich blackish green with a metallic luster. -- Satin s…

, a light cellular or fibrous opal; especially, geyserite (see Geyserite). It has often a pearly luster, and is then called pearl sinter.