▪ I. brilliant, a. (n.)
(ˈbrɪljənt)
Also 7–8 brillant.
[a. F. brillant shining, pr. pple. of briller to shine, corresp. to Pr. and Sp. brillar, Pg. brilhar, It. brillare, commonly taken as formed on a L. type *berillāre, f. late L. berill-us (Isid.), L. beryllus beryl. Littré notices that the verb is not found in Fr. before the 16th c., when it appears to have been taken from one of the cognate langs.]
1. a. Brightly shining, glittering, sparkling, lustrous.
| 1681 Blount Glossogr., Brillant (Fr.), glittering, sparkling, shining. 1696 Phillips, Brilliant, glittering, casting forth a sparkling Light. 1720 Kersey, Brillant [as in Blount & Phillips]. 1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. Introd. 1 The beauty of brilliant colours. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede 60 There is always a stronger sense of life when the sun is brilliant after rain. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 75 As brilliant as a piece of polished silver. |
b. Photogr. Applied to a type of reflecting view-finder (see quot. 1958).
| 1894 Photogram Oct. 247/1 The ‘Adams Brilliant’ finder is a new departure of considerable importance. 1896 Photography Ann. 1895 429 Brilliant view finders are now becoming the rule. 1937 Miniature Camera Mag. Jan. 92/1 With the additional aid of a ‘brilliant’ viewfinder. 1958 M. L. Hall Newnes Compl. Amat. Photogr. iii. 40 Many simple cameras are fitted with so-called brilliant finders—simply a metal container with a lens in front, a mirror set at 45°, and another which receives the image and into which the user looks. |
c. brilliant cut: in Glass-cutting. (See quot. 1962.)
| 1933 Archit. Rev. LXIV. 22/1 The glass panel with the brilliant-cut (that is engraved with emery wheel) figure had real beauty. 1953 Glass for Glazing (B.S.I.) 21 (caption) Types of brilliant cut. 1962 Gloss. Terms Glass Ind. (B.S.I.) 26 Brilliant cut, a decorative process in which designs are produced on flat glass with abrasive and polishing wheels. |
2. fig. a. Of qualities and actions: Splendid, illustrious, distinguished, striking the imagination.
| 1758 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. IV. cx. 109 The carnival is expected to be more brilliant than common, from the great concourse of noble strangers. 1769 Junius Lett. xxiv. 114 Wit is oftentimes false, though it may appear brilliant. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 242 A man of solid, though not brilliant parts. 1867 Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 312 It is impossible that prospects could be more brilliant. |
b. Of persons: Very distinguished or celebrated; esp. distinguished by talent and cleverness; having showy good qualities.
| 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 531 The stern and pensive William relaxed into good humour when his brilliant guest appeared. Ibid. II. 230 He found a brilliant circle of noblemen and gentlemen assembled. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 7 Fontenelle was both brilliant and far-sighted. |
c. In weakened use: amazing, ‘fantastic’. colloq.
| 1971 [see baggy n. pl.]. 1983 J. Kelman Not, not while Giro 17 Man man who would've thought of me getting paid back money like that. Brilliant. 1984 S. Townsend Growing Pains A. Mole 15, I allowed Pandora to visit me in my darkened bedroom. We had a brilliant kissing session. |
† B. as n. = brillant. Obs.
| 1691 Fop Dict. Suppl., The Brilliant of Language. Sharpness and wittiness of Expression. 1694 Congreve Double Dealer ii. i. (Jod.) Some distinguished quality, as for example the bel air, or brilliant of Mr. Brisk. |
Add: [1.] d. Brilliant Pebbles: a defence strategy conceived as part of the U.S. Strategic Defence Initiative in which incoming enemy missiles are intercepted and destroyed by numerous small heat-seeking missiles; also (usu. in lower case), the intercepting missiles themselves.
| 1988 Aviation Week 21 Mar. 15 Lowell Wood, a directed energy advocate, last week suggested an alternative SDI architecture based on small, lightweight and inexpensive kinetic energy interceptors... ‘Shrinking contemporary smart rocks into brilliant pebbles is an exercise in packaging engineering,’ he told a symposium on SDI. Ibid. 22 Aug. 15 Edward Teller and Lowell Wood briefed President Reagan in secret in late July and..early August on the Brilliant Pebbles interceptor. Brilliant pebbles are an alternative approach to the SDI's Space-Based Interceptor weapon. 1989 Economist 4 Feb. 44/3 ‘Brilliant pebbles’..would be tiny heat-seeking missiles already lurking in orbit... Their brilliance would derive from single microchips frozen to superconducting temperatures, each with the power of a modern supercomputer. 1992 Syracuse Herald Amer. 8 Nov. c 4/1 Clinton..intends to scrap the massive space-based defense system known as Brilliant Pebbles. |
▪ II. ˈbrilliant, n.
Also 7–8 brillant.
[a. F. brillant in same sense, subst. use of brillant adj.]
1. A diamond of the finest cut and brilliancy.
(The brilliant differs from the rose, in having horizontal faces on its upper and under sides, called the table and the collet respectively, which are surrounded and united by facets, while the upper surface of the rose rises into a dome, and is covered with facets. The French brilliant consists of two truncated pyramids placed base to base. Watts.)
| 1690 Lond. Gaz. No. 2609/4 Lost..a square Diamond Brilliant, weighing eight grains. 1700 Dryden Gd. Parson 139 This brillant is so spotless and so bright He needs no foyl. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones v. i, The jeweller knows that the finest brilliant requires a foil. 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. xvi. (ed. 3) 148 A brilliant which has successively graced the necks of a hundred beauties. |
b. attrib. and in comb.
| 1705 Lond. Gaz. No. 4160/4 Lost..two single Brilliant Drops. 1709 Ibid. No. 4617/4 A Rose Diamond Ring, set with a large Brilliant Stone. 1713 Ibid. No. 5139/4 Ten Diamonds, all Brilliant cut. 1748 Mrs. Delany Autobiog. (1861) II. 487 He has given her a very fine pair of brilliant earrings. 1761 Wilson in Phil. Trans. LII. 444 Six of these gems are cut brilliant fashion. |
† 2. A kind of silken fabric. Obs.
| 1719 J. Roberts Spinster 345 Many woollen stuffs, and stuffs mixed with silk, and even silks themselves..such as brilliants and pulerays, antherines and bombazines. |
3. ‘A brisk, high mettled, stately horse, that has a rais'd neck, a high motion, excellent haunches’ (Bailey vol. II. 1731); also in Craig 1847.
4. A species of firework.
| 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 682 A fixed brilliant..gun powder, 16; steel-filings, 4. |
5. The smallest type used in English printing, being a size less than ‘diamond’. (A fancy name, suggested by pearl, ruby, diamond.)
| 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 640 The smallest is called Brilliant, but is seldom used. |
▪ III. ˈbrilliant, v. rare.
[f. brilliant a.]
trans. To cut as a brilliant.
| 1752 Beawes Lex Mercat. 777 The Diamonds..to which they have given the name of Nayffez or dwarf Points..are naturally brillianted. 1784 H. Walpole Corr. IV. 377 (D.) The new Bristol stones..would pass on a more skilful lapidary than I am for having been brillianted by a professed artist. |