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Reflection   /rəflˈɛkʃən/  /rɪflˈɛkʃən/   Listen
noun
Reflection  n.  (Written also reflexion)  
1.
The act of reflecting, or turning or sending back, or the state of being reflected. Specifically:
(a)
The return of rays, beams, sound, or the like, from a surface. See Angle of reflection, below. "The eye sees not itself, But by reflection, by some other things."
(b)
The reverting of the mind to that which has already occupied it; continued consideration; meditation; contemplation; hence, also, that operation or power of the mind by which it is conscious of its own acts or states; the capacity for judging rationally, especially in view of a moral rule or standard. "By reflection,... I would be understood to mean, that notice which the mind takes of its own operations, and the manner of them, by reason whereof there come to be ideas of these operations in the understanding." "This delight grows and improves under thought and reflection."
2.
Shining; brightness, as of the sun. (Obs.)
3.
That which is produced by reflection. Specifically:
(a)
An image given back from a reflecting surface; a reflected counterpart. "As the sun water we can bear, Yet not the sun, but his reflection, there."
(b)
A part reflected, or turned back, at an angle; as, the reflection of a membrane.
(c)
Result of meditation; thought or opinion after attentive consideration or contemplation; especially, thoughts suggested by truth. "Job's reflections on his once flourishing estate did at the same time afflict and encourage him."
4.
Censure; reproach cast. "He died; and oh! may no reflection shed Its poisonous venom on the royal dead."
5.
(Physiol.) The transference of an excitement from one nerve fiber to another by means of the nerve cells, as in reflex action. See Reflex action, under Reflex.
Angle of reflection, the angle which anything, as a ray of light, on leaving a reflecting surface, makes with the perpendicular to the surface.
Angle of total reflection. (Opt.) Same as Critical angle, under Critical.
Synonyms: Meditation; contemplation; rumination; cogitation; consideration; musing; thinking.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Reflection" Quotes from Famous Books



... they are obsolete now, and indeed were obsolete before they were dead, is a warning to authors who intend similar extravagances. Strangeness and exoticism are not lasting wares. By the time of "Love's Labour Lost" they had become nothing more than matter for laughter, and it is only through their reflection and distortion in Shakespeare's pages that we ...
— English Literature: Modern - Home University Library Of Modern Knowledge • G. H. Mair

... "averse from any thought of this war;" but he did not deny that he had done all in his power to confirm the King in that opinion. A few too complacent friends, he told the Duke, might for the moment concur in his view; reflection would soon change their minds. "A few merchants, nor all the merchants in London, were not the city of London, which had had war enough, and could only become rich by peace." The hopes of a liberal grant from Parliament were delusions. He was old enough to remember what had been the fate ...
— The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2 • Henry Craik

... their dark locks was wreathed the white lily of the Nile,—that flower being accounted as welcome to the moon, as the golden blossoms of the bean-flower are to the sun. As they passed under the lamp, a gleam of light flashed from their bosoms, which, I could perceive, was the reflection of a small mirror, that, in the manner of the women of the East, each wore beneath her ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 265, July 21, 1827 • Various

... at the top like a palm-tree, or, to compare it to something I have seen, to the Italian pines, that come so picturesquely into all these Naples pictures. If you will believe me, that pillar of steam was like a column of fire, from the sun shining on and through it, and perhaps from the reflection of the background of crimson clouds and blue and gold sky, spread out there and hung there in royal and extravagant profusion, to make a highway and a regal gateway, through which I could just then see coming the horses and the chariot of a ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... sky assumes a peculiarly lurid aspect, becoming dark overhead, whilst the western horizon is lighted up with the rays of the setting sun, although there is not a cloud visible. One witnessing such a scene elsewhere would fancy himself on the eve of a storm; I attribute it to the reflection from the green waters of the bank. We have cleared away all the old eggs from the gannets' nests, and these prolific layers are now supplying us with fresh. Of fish we can catch none, except by trolling. We have no better success ...
— The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter • Raphael Semmes


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