opalescent, a.
(əʊpəˈlɛsənt)
[f. opal + -escent.]
Exhibiting a play of various colours like that of the opal; having a milky iridescence.
| 1813 Bakewell Introd. Geol. (1815) Vocab. 488 Opalescent, transmitting variously coloured light combined with a milky cloudiness, as in the siliceous stone called opal. 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. i. vii. §15 Titian hardly ever paints sunshine, but a certain opalescent twilight which has as much of human emotion as of imitative truth in it. 1868 B. J. Lossing Hudson 33 The beautiful labradorite, or opalescent felspar. 1880 Sat. Rev. 20 Mar. 385/1 The opalescent effects manifested by specimens of glass after being long buried underground. |