reflection, reflexion
(rɪˈflɛkʃən)
Also 5–6 refleccio(u)n, 6 reflyxyon, reflextion.
[a. F. réflexion (14th c.), or ad. late L. reflexiōn-em (med.L. also reflectiōn-em): see reflect v. and flexion.
The etymological spelling with x is the earliest, and is still common in scientific use, perh. through its connexion with reflex; in the general senses the influence of the verb has made the form with ct the prevailing one.]
† 1. ? A reflexive influence on the mind. Obs.—1
| c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame i. 22 As yf folkys complexions Make hem dreme of reflexions. |
2. a. The action, on the part of surfaces, of throwing back light or heat (rays, beams, etc.) falling upon them; the fact or phenomenon of light and heat being thrown back in this way. Also, the similar action of surfaces on other waves and radiations.
Cf. reflect v. 4 b.
angle of reflection, the angle which the reflected ray makes with a perpendicular to the surface (
† or with the surface itself).
| c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 222 It myghte wel be Naturelly by composicions Of Anglis and of slye reflexions. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. iii. (1555) B vi/2 Whan Phebus beames..cause the eyer by reflection To be full hoote. 1481 Caxton Myrr. ii. xxxi. 125 Of the reflexion y⊇ myrrour smyteth on the walle and shyneth theron as longe as the rayes of the sonne endure in the glasse. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 42 The lower region..is thorowe the reflextion of the Sonne beames rebounding from th' earth also made hoote. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage i. viii. (1614) 43 The reflection or refraction of the Sunne-beames in a waterie cloud. 1660 R. Coke Justice Vind. 10, I therefore probably conclude, that the heat in summer is caused from the reflexion of the sun. 1726 Swift Gulliver iii. iii, Twenty Lamps..which, from the Reflection of the Adamant, cast a strong Light into every Part. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Rays of light being supposed..to be reflected by a given curve, so as to make the angle of reflexion equal to the angle of incidence. 1841 Penny Cycl. XIX. 349/2 Heat being capable of reflection, like light, the rays of the sun may be collected by a concave speculum in its principal focus. 1869 Tyndall in Fortn. Rev. 1 Feb. 240 When a luminous beam impinges at the proper angle on a plane glass surface it is polarized by reflexion. 1902 Chem. News 24 Jan. 47/2 Certain rays existed in the radiation emitted by certain radio-active bodies which were capable of reflection. 1909 Proc. R. Soc. A. LXXXII. 497 The diffuse reflection of the α-particles is a consequence of their scattering. 1929 Jrnl. Sci. Instruments VI. 34 Sound has all the properties of a wave motion..and exhibits the phenomena of reflection, interference, diffraction and resonance. 1941 A. B. Wood Textbk. Sound (ed. 2) iii. 311 The direct reflection of a sound of short duration from a surface of large area such as the wall of a building or a cliff is generally discribed as an echo. 1960 [see reflect v. 4 b]. 1969 Times 28 Aug. 3/3 Seismic reflections indicate the thickness of the rocks. |
| fig. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 99 Man..Cannot make boast to haue that which he hath; Nor feeles not what he owes, but by reflection. 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. xv. (1739) 79 They are like the Sun gone down, and must rule by reflection, as the Moon in the night. |
b. The result of such reflecting of light; reflected light or heat.
| 1555 Eden Decades 246 The raynebowe is a reflection of the beames of the soonne in the vapoure of a clowde. 1601 Sir W. Cornwallis Ess. ii. xxix. (1631) 33 Rather choosing to be a glimmering reflexion, then a true and reall light. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 428 That side which from the wall of Heav'n..som small reflection gaines Of glimmering air. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 439 In vain the sight, dejected to the ground, Stoops for relief; thence hot-ascending steams And keen reflection pain. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 312 Almost blind and with their skin terribly burnt by the reflection of the snow. |
| fig. 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 686 If we examine our coldness in our love to God; wee shall perceive the reflexion of it to our neighbour to bee frozen. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. ii. 33 Shee's a good signe, but I haue seene small reflection of her wit. 1686 tr. Chardin's Coronat. Solyman 64 The Lustre of Gold cast such a powerful reflection upon his Lordly senses. |
3. a. The action of a mirror or other polished surface in exhibiting or reproducing the image of an object; the fact or phenomenon of an image being produced in this way.
| c 1430 Lydg. Reas. & Sens. 5757 This welle most royall Was y-pavyd with cristall, Shewyng by refleccioun Al the estris enviroun. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. i. ii. 53 The eye sees not it selfe but by reflection, By some other things. 1653 H. More Antid. Ath. iii. xvi, Reflexion makes the images more dim then direct sight. 1777 Sir W. Jones Ess. Poetry E. Nat. in Poems, etc. 186 Both drew their images from nature herself, without catching them only by reflection. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 26 Occasioning us at first to mistake images of reflection for substances. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic ii. (1833) 34 The image was as distinct and perfect as if it had been formed by reflexion from a piece of mirror glass. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xv. 101 In its blue depths each ice mass doubled itself by reflection. |
b. An image or counterpart thus produced.
| 1587 Golding De Mornay v. 57 It was of necessitie, that this vnderstanding of God should yeeld a reflexion backe again to it self, as a face doth in a Lookingglasse. 1692 Dryden Eleonora 137 As the sun in water we can bear, Yet not the sun, but his reflection there. 1839 Athenæum 26 Jan., An apparatus..to receive a reflection of the scene without. 1870 J. H. Newman Gram. Assent ii. vi. 188 The mind is like a double mirror, in which reflexions of self within self multiply themselves till they are undistinguishable. 1877 Black Green Past. ii. (1878) 11 There was not a breath of wind to break the reflections of the trees on the glassy surface. |
| fig. 1821 Shelley Epipsych. 118 A tender Reflection of the eternal Moon of Love. a 1854 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Hist. (1855) 346 Poetry is a glorified reflection of life and nature. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 29 We might perhaps see in this fact a reflexion of the unbending character of the writer. |
c. The fact of colour being thrown by one thing upon another; a colour, hue, or tint received in this way; also
Zool. a colour varying in different lights, an iridescence.
| 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 219 This Sea was so called from a reflection of rednesse..from the banks, clifts and sands of many Ilands. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 285 Goe to then, Painter, confound red roses with good store of lillies, and what reflexion the aire taketh of them, let that be the colour of her face. 1805 A. Knox Rem. (1844) I. 16 The purple and gold..seems clearly an unconscious reflection of that yet unrisen sun. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVIII. 64/1 Feathers..golden-green, with grey edges, and all are glossed with brilliant metallic reflections. 1874 Ibis July (1886) 258 The greater wing-coverts..with greenish black reflections, but without any white. |
4. a. The action of bending, turning, or folding back; recurvation. Also
fig.| 1553 Brende Q. Curtius 167 Croked Erymanthus with hys many turnynges and reflexions is consumed by the inhabitours with wateryng their grounde. 1587 Golding De Mornay v. 62 This Vnderstanding, by a certeine Reflexion of it selfe vpon it selfe, hath begotten vs a second person. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry ii. iv. 44 A Bunched Line is that which is carried with round reflections or bowings vp and downe, making diuers hollow Crookes or Furrowes. a 1667 Jer. Taylor Apol. Liturgy Pref. §8 The first reflexions of a crooked tree are not to straightness, but to a contrary incurvation. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. vii. 25 Inanimate unactive Matter moves always in a streight Line, nor ever reflects in an Angle, nor bends in a Circle (which is a continual Reflexion), unless [etc.]. 1758 I. Lyons Fluxions vii. §191. 142 If a curve instead of being continued beyond the ordinate is reflected from it,..that ordinate is said to pass through a point of Reflection or Cusp. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 47 [The] umbilicus is partly concealed by the reflection over it of the peristome. |
† b. The action of bringing back from a state of anger or estrangement.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1598 Chapman Iliad xviii. 404 Mightie suppliance, By all their graue men hath bene made, gifts, honors, all proposde For his reflection. |
† c. The action of turning back from some point; return, retrogression.
Obs. rare.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. ii. 25 As whence the Sunne gins his reflection, Shipwracking Stormes, and direfull Thunders [break]. 1662 J. Bargrave Pope Alex. VII (1867) 123 Ashes of the Mount Vesuvius, near Naples, which was 4 times the poynt of my reflection,—I facing about for England from the topp, or crater,..of that mountain. |
† d. Astron. (See
quots.)
Obs. rare—0.
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Reflexion of the Moon, is (according to Bullialdus) her 3d inequality of Motion: this Tycho calls by the Name of her Variation. 1710 Ibid. II, Reflection in the..Copernican System is the Distance of the Pole from the Horizon of the Disk; which is the same thing as the Sun's Declination in the Ptolemaick Hypothesis. |
5. a. The action of throwing back, or fact of being thrown or driven back, after impact. (Said of material objects, sound, etc., and
fig.)
| 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. iii. 157 It sheweth more wit but no lesse vanity to commend ones self not in a strait line but by reflection. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. iii. (1839) 274 In this place..let it be supposed that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. 1662 Hobbes Seven Prob. Wks. 1845 VII. 21 The air comes out again with the same violence by reflection. 1703 Kelsey Serm. 149 It is but like the rebounding of a Ball betwixt the Hardness of two Walls, where the Reflection is continued till the Force be spent. 1799 J. Wood Princ. Mech. vi. 130 The velocity of the body after reflection is equal to it's velocity before incidence. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic ix. (1833) 221 Many remarkable phenomena in the natural world are produced by the reflexion and concentration of sound. 1884 A. Daniell Princ. Physics xiv. 413 Reflexion of sound is familiarly illustrated by the Echo. |
b. Phys. The action, on the part of a nerve-centre, of returning an impression received; reflex action.
| 1836 Sir J. Paget in Mem. v. (1901) 93 He is certainly a sharp fellow, but I should think rather monomaniac on the reflections. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 153/1 In all these cases sensation coexists with the reflection of the impression through the motor nerves. |
6. a. Animadversion, blame, censure, reproof.
| 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. xiv. (1739) 78 As their work is full of reflection, so formerly they had met with many sad influences for their labour. 1693 Dryden Juvenal Ded. (1697) 47 For in English, to say Satire, is to mean Reflection, as we use that Word in the worst sence. 1707 Hearne Collect. 23 Dec. (O.H.S.) II. 82 The Duke was oppos'd by y⊇ Dr...not without some sharpness and Reflection. 1748 Richardson Clarissa I. vi, If I have deserved reflection, let me not be spared. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. ii, Robertson uttered not a word of reflection on his companion for the consequences of his obstinacy. |
b. A remark or statement reflecting, or casting some imputation, on a person.
| 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. iv. §49 All those sharp Reflexions which could be made upon the King himself. 1658–9 in Burton's Diary (1828) III. 238 It is a reflexion upon the whole House. I am sorry to hear that said. 1675 R. Burthogge Causa Dei 11, I abhor Reflections and Hard Words, as neither Philosophical, nor Civil, nor Christian. 1718 Prior Solomon iii. 459 May no reflection shed Its poisonous venom on the royal dead. 1788 Priestley Lect. Hist. iv. xx. 161 The Baeotians were Plutarch's countrymen and he could not bear that any reflection, though ever so just, should be cast upon them. 1839 Hallam Hist. Lit. iii. v. §43 He cannot restrain himself from reflections on kings and priests when he is most contending for them. 1870 Max Müller Sc. Relig. (1873) 395 Had his personal reflections concerned myself alone. |
c. An imputation; a fact or procedure casting an imputation or discredit
on one.
| 1663 Gerbier Counsel 5 An ill built Palace leaves a perpetual reflection of Ignorance on the Builder. 1673 Grew Anat. Roots Ep. Ded., To insist hereon too much, might be a reflection upon Your Judgments. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 189 ¶7 It is one of the greatest Reflections upon Human Nature that Paternal Instinct should be a stronger Motive to Love than Filial Gratitude. |
† 7. Reference, relation, connexion.
Obs.| 1628 T. Spencer Logick 20 Those 10. things, are propounded, not as meere and simple beings: but, in respect of that reflection, or relation which ariseth out of them, vnto our vnderstanding. Ibid. 191 They haue no reflexion, or relation to any thing before man. 1664 Marvell Corr. Wks. 1875 II. 177 That His and Your present prosperity may have as strong a sympathy and reflexion. |
8. a. The action of turning (back) or fixing the thoughts on some subject; meditation, deep or serious consideration.
| a 1674 Clarendon Surv. Leviath. (1676) 20 We shall with less reflexion pass over his fourth Chapter. 1704 Norris Ideal World ii. iii. 122 By reflection we come to know the true state of human nature. 1726 Butler Serm. Hum. Nat. ii. Wks. 1874 II. 28 Our real nature leads us to be influenced in some degree by reflection and conscience. 1771 Junius Lett. lix. (1788) 319 Upon reflection, his conduct accounts naturally for itself. 1785 Paley Mor. Philos. i. vii. 37 Mankind act more from habit than reflection. 1837 Landor Pentam. Wks. 1846 II. 309 It is only the hour of reflection that is at last the hour of sedateness and improvement. 1869 Tyndall Notes Lect. Light §373 A moment's reflection will make it plain [etc.]. 1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 43 note, Surely it must on reflexion appear that this is by no means so. |
† b. Recollection or remembrance
of a thing. Also without
const. Obs.| 1655–87 H. More App. Antid. (1712) 193 This torture arising..out of reflexion of what it has suffered. 1694 Congreve Double Dealer ii. vii, Though it made you a little uneasy for the present, yet the reflection of it must needs be entertaining. a 1704 T. Brown Eng. Satire Wks. 1730 I. 25 Making them [vices] as bitter in the Reflection as..they might be suppos'd pleasant in the Enjoyment. |
c. Philos. The mode, operation, or faculty by which the mind has knowledge of itself and its operations, or by which it deals with the ideas received from sensation and perception.
| 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. i. §4 By Reflection then,..I would be understood to mean, that notice which the Mind takes of its own Operations, and the manner of them. 1692 Norris Refl. Locke's Ess. Hum. Und. 61 Ideas of Reflection are but a Secondary sort of Ideas [etc.]. 1797–1803 Foster in Life & Corr. (1846) I. 177 A knowledge of sensation more than of reflexion. 1847 Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) I. 98 Was there nothing to guide man but the reports of his senses? Democritus said there was Reflection. 1853 Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §48 Reflection is ascertainment of points of resemblance and points of difference. |
9. a. A thought or idea occurring to, or occupying, the mind.
| 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §25 These reflections were so terrible to him that they robbed him of all peace and quiet of mind. 1671 R. Montagu in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 510 See whether upon second reflections the King will say anything to me. 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Bristol 22 Aug., These reflections draw after them others that are too melancholy. 1791 Cowper Retired Cat 108 Then stepped the poet into bed, With this reflection in his head. 1833 N. Arnott Physics (ed. 5) II. 84 The reflection will naturally occur here [etc.]. 1866 Crump Banking ix. 207 A fact suggesting rather a singular reflection. |
b. A thought expressed in words; a remark made after reflection on a subject.
| 1659 Hammond On Ps. Pref. 3 Beside his many incidental reflexions on this Book of Psalms. a 1704 T. Brown Eng. Satire Wks. 1730 I. 25 The reflections are beautiful, founded upon true learning and give a just reputation to their author. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 31 ¶3 When an account was brought him of his son's death, he received it only with this reflection, ‘I knew that my son was mortal’. 1819 Shelley Peter Bell 3rd v. xii, Odd collections Of saws and proverbs, and reflections Old parsons make in burying-grounds. 1839 Hallam Hist. Lit. ii. vii. §36 The reflections are usually of a moral cast. |
10. Cryst.,
Math.,
Physics. The conceptual operation of inverting a system or event with respect to a plane, each element being transferred perpendicularly through the plane to a point the same distance the other side of it. Freq.
attrib.| 1899 W. J. Lewis Treat. Crystallogr. iii. 18 We shall often express the relation of two planes, or two lines, to a plane of symmetry bisecting the angle between them by the statement that they are reciprocal reflexions in the plane. 1910 Nature 26 May 368/1 Its 880 known solutions (8 × 880, if we admit reversals and reflections of the same square to be ‘different’). 1955 W. Pauli Niels Bohr 30 The mathematical group was further amplified by including the reflections of space and time. Ibid. 33, I am restricting myself..to the discussion of the reflection of all coordinates simultaneously while I do not consider the reflection of space or time separately. 1965 A. F. Brown tr. Zhdanov's Crystal Physics v. 144 Symmetry groups containing only the operations of reflection, rotation and inversion, and not containing any translations, are called point groups. 1965 Sci. Amer. Dec. 28/1 Until December, 1956, they [sc. physicists] had assumed that if an event is possible, its mirror image is also possible, and that if one looks at some real event in a mirror, what one sees could also actually happen. This was known as reflection symmetry. 1971 I. G. Gass et al. Understanding Earth i. 19/1 The stereogram of zircon..shows a four-fold rotation axis in the centre and also shows a number of reflection planes. 1972 F. J. Budden Fascination of Groups xxvi. 507 The two-dimensional pattern of fig. 26·051 contains translations and glide reflections, but no rotations. |
11. attrib. and
Comb., as
reflection-coiner,
reflection oscillator,
reflection time;
reflection-reducing adj.;
reflection coefficient,
factor Physics = reflectance;
reflection nebula Astr., a nebula which is visible only by virtue of the light which it reflects;
reflection profiling Geol., profiling (sense 3) by means of reflection shooting;
reflection shooting Geol., seismic prospecting in which shock waves generated at the earth's surface are detected up to a mile away after having been reflected at the interface between strata, the depth of which is deduced from their time of arrival.
| 1942 A. Hund Frequency Modulation i. 139 The reflection coefficient for horizontal polarization. 1959 Born & Wolf Princ. Optics xiii. 627 The complex reflection and transmission coefficients of the film may immediately be evaluated. 1975 E. Height Optics iii. 43 Determine the values of the amplitude reflection coefficients for light incident at 30° on an air-glass interface. |
| 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 95 The celebrated wits.., casual discoursers, reflection-coiners, meditation-founders [etc.]. |
| 1920 Reflection factor [see reflectometer]. 1971 E. Skudrzyk Acoustics xv. 302 The amplitude reflection factor represents the ratio of the reflected to the incident pressure wave with respect to magnitude and phase. |
| 1936 Astrophysical Jrnl. LXXXIV. 219 (heading) Reflection nebulae. 1974 Sci. Amer. Oct. 34/3 These reflection nebulas are useful for studying the properties of the interstellar dust grains, but they are distinguished from the true emission nebulas, which shine as a result of the atomic processes going on within them. |
| 1938 B. McCollum in A. E. Dunstan et al. Sci. of Petroleum I. viii. 396/2 (heading) Accuracy of reflection profiling. 1964 Curray & Moore in van Andel & Shor Marine Geol. Gulf of Calif. 193 The sedimentary structure of the continental terrace of the Costa de Nayarit..has been investigated geophysically by means of continuous acoustic reflection profiling. 1971 I. G. Gass et al. Understanding Earth xvi. 243/2 Reflecting horizons..can be mapped over vast areas by continuous reflection profiling. |
| 1962 Corson & Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields xi. 406 Do reflection-reducing coatings on lenses improve the transmission significantly? |
| 1929 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining & Metall. Engineers LXXXI. 606 The distances are short in reflection shooting compared with those in refraction shooting. 1951 K. K. Landes Petroleum Geol. ii. 48 Refraction shooting has recently become important again as a method of detailing rock structure where reflection shooting is not practicable. 1973 R. E. Chapman Petroleum Geol. ii. 45 More detailed structural information is obtained from reflection shooting, in which the elastic waves are partly reflected by surfaces of contrasting density. |
| 1971 Physics Bull. June 333/1 Reflection spectroscopy concerns the measurement of the frequency dependence of the specular reflectivity of the material to determine either the positions and strengths of features in its absorption spectrum or its optical constants. |
| 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 285 In my case the reflection time is over. |
Hence
reˈflectional a., due to reflection;
reˈflectioning, the action of reflecting;
reˈflectionist, one who theorizes on the subject of reflection;
reˈflectionless adv., without a reflection; also as
adj., not giving rise to any reflection.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) VI. 3 But reflectioning apart, thou seest, Jack, that her plot is beginning to work. 1861 Ruskin Arrows of Chace (1880) I. 300 Whenever I have seen a rainbow over water..it has stood on it reflectionless. 1862 F. Hall Refut. Hindu Philos. Syst. 63 The bondage of the soul, consisting in its connexion with misery, which is reflexional, is unreal. Ibid. 243 Such as say thus, the reflexionists [etc.]. 1878 S. H. Hodgson Philos. Reflection ii. v. I. 226 Idealist (or rather Reflectionist) in philosophy. 1951 Rev. Sci. Instruments XXII. 828/1 A reflectionless wave-guide termination. 1956 Nature 25 Feb. 392/1 A thin transverse film having a surface resistivity equal to the wave impedance of the waveguide forms a reflexion-less termination when [etc.]. |