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A bow or arch exhibiting, in concentric bands, the several colors of the spectrum, 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.

Formed with or like a rainbow.

A curvature in the shape of a circular arc or an arch; as, the colored arc (the rainbow); the arc of Hadley's quadrant.

Anything bent, or in the form of a curve, as the rainbow. I do set my bow in the cloud. Gen. ix. 13.

e, thin, and white fabric made of flax or linen. He hath ribbons of all the colors i' the rainbow; . . . inkles, caddises, cambrics, lawns. Shak.

tinged; dyed; painted; stained. The lime rod, colored as the glede. Chaucer. The colored rainbow arched wide. Spenser.

. [Obs.] A wiser generation, who have the art to coy the fonder sort into their nets. Bp. Rainbow.

Granting, or authorized to grant, dispensations. "Dispensatory power." Bp. Rainbow.

To vanish. Or like the rainbow's lovely form, Evanishing amid the storm. Burns.

Of or pertaining to the iris or rainbow; prismatic; as, the iridal colors. Whewell.

Exhibition of colors like those of the rainbow; the quality or state of being iridescent; a prismatic play of color; as, the iridescence of mother-of-pearl.

Having colors like the rainbow; exhibiting a play of changeable colors; nacreous; prismatic; as, iridescent glass.

Of or pertaining to the iris or rainbow.

The goddess of the rainbow, and swift-footed messenger of the gods. Shak.

Having colors like those of the rainbow; iridescent. Holmes.

jump or by jumps; to bound; to move swiftly. Also Fig. My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky. Wordsworth.

rounding objects are seen projected on the cloud, greatly enlarged and often encircled by rainbow colors.

To open. [Poetic] Wilt thou not ope thy heart to know What rainbows teach and sunsets show Emerson.

ng in the form of a bright light, sometimes near the sun, and tinged with colors like the rainbow, and sometimes opposite to the sun. The latter is usually called an anthelion. Often several mock suns appear at the same time. Cf. Paraselene.

to sever. "Thou shalt part it in pieces." Lev. ii. 6. There, [celestial love] parted into rainbow hues. Keble.