REFLEXION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Reflexion

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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.

Reflexion n. See Reflection.

See images of 'Reflexion'

Etymology of 'Reflexion'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Reflexion" Quotes from Famous Books

... benefit, whatever it may be, involved in his having cast a spell upon the simpler, the very simplest, forms of attention. This is all he is entitled to; he is entitled to nothing, he is bound to admit, that can come to him, from the reader, as a result on the latter's part of any act of reflexion or discrimination. He may ENJOY this finer tribute—that is another affair, but on condition only of taking it as a gratuity "thrown in," a mere miraculous windfall, the fruit of a tree he may not pretend to have shaken. Against reflexion, ...

— The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 1 (of 2) • Henry James

... evolved a dress (unmade) of white crape embroidered in true lover's-knots of violet silk, and ears of wheat in gold. Then there was a scream at the glass, and Sarah seen in it with ten claws in the air very wide apart: she had slily turned the mirror and was devouring the reflexion of the finery, and this last Indian fabric overpowered her. Her exclamation was instantly followed by much polishing; but Mrs. Dodd replied to it after the manner of her sex: "Well it is lovely," said she to Julia: "but where is the one with ...

— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... remember, you asked me in one of your letters to write you something to prevent you feeling sorry at having missed the games. And if I have succeeded in that, I am glad: if not, I yet console myself with this reflexion, that in future you will both come to the games and come to see me, and will not leave your hope of enjoyment dependent on ...

— Letters of Cicero • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... her knees, her palms lightly touching the ground, supporting her. At the edge of the streamlet she knelt, and she was looking with a species of startled shy astonishment at the reflexion of her face in the limpid brown water. And I, with sullen eye askance regarded her a good ten ...

— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel

... placed almost touching one another. Each of them sheds its glimmer, which ought, one would think, to light up its neighbours by reflexion and give us a clear view of each individual specimen. But not at all: the luminous party is a chaos in which our eyes are unable to distinguish any definite form at a medium distance. The collective lights confuse the light-bearers into ...

— The Wonders of Instinct • J. H. Fabre

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