Search the Dictionary

The bright reflection of the moon's light on an expanse of water. [Poetic]

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 act of moralizing; moral reflections or discourse.

To make moral reflections; to regard acts and events as involving a moral.

The result of an act, or of acts, of observing; view; reflection; conclusion; judgment. In matters of human prudence, we shall find the greatest advantage in making wise observations on our conduct. I. Watts.

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.

vapid or insipid; to make lifeless or spiritless; to dull; to weaken. Chaucer. Reason and reflection . . . pall all his enjoyments. Atterbury.

Thoughtful, sober, or sad; employed in serious reflection; given to, or favorable to, earnest or melancholy musing. The pensive secrecy of desert cell. Milton. Anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed. Pope.

person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection. Locke.

conduct, motives, or private affairs, in an invidious and offensive manner; as, personal reflections or remarks.

To convince by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe. Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you. Heb. vi. 9.

r the purpose of determining their relative position in space. -- Plane of refraction or reflection (Opt.), the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.

hand; hence, to prejudice. I Think it more respectful to the reader to leave something to reflections than to preoccupy his judgment. Arbuthnot.

that the ordinary image produced by double refraction is thrown out of the field by total reflection from the internal cemented surface, and the extraordinary, or polarized, image alone is transmitted.

ctrum, and formed in the part of the hemisphere opposite to the sun by the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays in drops of falling rain.

Uttered or undertaken with too much haste or too little reflection; as, rash words; rash measures.

Given to reflection or serious consideration; reflective; contemplative; as, a reflecting mind. Reflecting circle, an astronomical instrument for measuring angless, like the sextant or Hadley's quadrant, by the reflection of light from two plane mirrors which it carries, and differing from the sextant chiefly in having…

With reflection; also, with censure; reproachfully. Swift.

Directed back; attended by reflection; retroactive; introspective. The reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions. Sir M. Hale.

See Reflection. Chaucer.