Search the Dictionary

Shining; emitting or reflecting light; brilliant; bright; as, the is a luminous body; a luminous color. Fire burneth wood, making it . . . luminous. Bacon. The mountains lift . . . their lofty and luminous heads. Longfellow.

Pertaining to or containing alum, or alumina; as, aluminous minerals, aluminous solution.

Pertaining to rivers; abounding in streama.

Bright; clear. [R.] H. Taylor.

Possessing in itself the property of emitting light. Sir D. Brewster.

Having three lights [R.]

Consisting of many folds, coils, or convolutions. But ended foul in many a scaly fold, Voluminous and vast. Milton. Over which dusky draperies are hanging, and voluminous curtains have long since fallen. De Quincey.

Those fortuitous effects produced by luminous rays falling on certain objects so that some parts stand forth in abnormal brightness and other parts are cast into a deep shadow.

al in containing little or no bitumen, in consequence of which it burns with a nearly non luminous flame. The purer specimens consist almost wholly of carbon. Also called glance coal and blind coal.

lights). Aurora borealis (, i. e., northern daybreak; popularly called northern lights. A luminous meteoric phenomenon, visible only at night, and supposed to be of electrical origin. This species of light usually appears in streams, ascending toward the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the norther…

A ray or collection of parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body; as, a beam of light, or of heat. How far that little candle throws his beams ! Shak.

Radiating or reflecting light; shedding or having much light; shining; luminous; not dark. The sun was bright o'erhead. Longfellow. The earth was dark, but the heavens were bright. Drake. The public places were as bright as at noonday. Macaulay.

Bright; clear; luminous; brilliant. [R.] Marlowe.

trical brush, a form of the electric discharge characterized by a brushlike appearance of luminous rays diverging from an electrified body.

ed at the bottom, a mixture of gas and air is formed which burns at the top with a feebly luminous but intensely hot flame. -- Argand burner, Rose burner, etc. See under Argand, Rose, etc.

Glowing; luminous; incandescent.

d or refracted by another curve, are tangents, the reflecting or refracting curve and the luminous point being in one plane. -- Caustic lime. See under Lime. -- Caustic potash, Caustic soda (Chem.), the solid hydroxides potash, KOH, and soda, NaOH, or solutions of the same. -- Caustic silver, nitrate of silver, luna…

als of time; used in determining the velocity of projectiles, the duration of short-lived luminous phenomena, etc.

um. It is the result of the wearing down and decomposition, in part, of rocks containing aluminous minerals, as granite. Lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and other ingredients, are often present as impurities.

Free from opaqueness; transparent; bright; light; luminous; unclouded. The stream is so transparent, pure, and clear. Denham. Fair as the moon, clear as the sun. Canticles vi. 10.