translucent, a.
(trɑːnsˈl(j)uːsənt, træns-, -nz-)
[f. L. translūcēnt-em, pres. pple. of translūcēre to shine through: see transluce, and cf. tralucent.]
† 1. That shines through; emitting penetrating rays. b. In quot. a 1652, thoroughly illuminated or luminous. Obs. rare.
| 1596 C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 97 The sunne, That latelie bright translucent splendour shed. a 1652 A. Wilson Jas. I (1653) 61 She had a translucent passage in the night, through the City of London, by multitudes of Torches. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 359 The Sun translucent from on high With locks of waving gold salutes the sky. |
2. Through which light passes:
= transparent.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 153 The eye of man is translucent, and containeth in it a horny substance. 1634 Milton Comus 861 Sabrina fair,..sitting Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave. 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 180 Replenish'd from the cool, translucent springs. 1847 Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) I. 326 Water, air, and other bodies which are translucent. |
| fig. 1891 Swinburne Stud. Pr. & Poetry, Jrnl. Sir W. Scott (1894) 23 The translucent treachery of such an impious imposture. |
b. Now, more distinctively: Allowing the passage of light, yet diffusing it so as not to render bodies lying beyond clearly visible; semi-transparent.
| 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 120 A pane of thin translucent horn. 1846 Grove Corr. Phys. Forces 29 The glass ceases to be transparent, though remaining translucent. 1851 Woodward Mollusca i. 66 The shell of the argonaut is thin and translucent. 1905 in Westm. Gaz. 17 Mar. 12/1 The windows of this classroom were once transparent, they are now translucent, and if not cleaned very soon will be opaque. |
| fig. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. ii, The old centuries melt from opaque to partially translucent, transparent here and there. |
Hence
transˈlucently adv., in a translucent manner or state; so as to be seen through.
| 1832 Lytton Eugene A. i. i, So translucently pure and soft was her complexion. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 82 The skin..is translucently pale and shines like a mirror. |