▪ I. refract, pa. pple. rare.
(rɪˈfrækt)
[ad. L. refract-us, f. refringĕre: see next.]
Refracted.
| 1625 Gill Sacr. Philos. Pref., If the eye bee not able to behold the beames of the Sunne,..yet it joyes to see that shining lampe when his beames are refract, or as it were broken off. 1880 Swinburne Songs of Spring-t., Birthday Ode 38 With moonlight-coloured gold And rays refract from the oldworld heaven of time. |
▪ II. refract, v.
(rɪˈfrækt)
[f. L. refract-, ppl. stem of refringĕre, f. re- re- + frangĕre to break. Cf. F. réfracter (1752).]
1. a. Physics. Of substances: To break the course of (light or other waves) and turn (it or them) out of the direct line; esp. to deflect at a certain angle at the point of passage from one medium into another of different density.
| 1612 Selden Pref. Drayton's Poly-olb. (1876) I. p. xliv, By..rash collecting (as it were,) from visual beams refracted through another's eye. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 345 Some reflected, others refracted beget that semicircular variety we generally call the Rainebow. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. iii. viii. 148 The glassie Humor may give a passage to the Species to the Retina, and may refract them from Perpendiculars. 1728 Pemberton Newton's Philos. 375 All transparent bodies refract part of the light incident upon them, and reflect another part. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 218 The powers in bodies for variously reflecting, absorbing, transmitting, and refracting light. 1800 Henry Epit. Chem. (1808) 31 Caloric is refracted, also, according to the same law that regulates the refraction of light. 1872 Huxley Physiol. ix. 225 Glass refracts light more strongly than water does. 1874 Proc. R. Soc. XXII. 532, I have dealt with the effect of the atmosphere to refract sound upwards. 1944 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. xiv. 284 The waves advance more rapidly through the deeper water opposite a bay than through the shallower water opposite a headland... The waves thus become curved or refracted..towards parallelism with the shore line. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XI. 408/1 Waves propagated through the solid earth are refracted by changes of material or changes of density. 1974 Harvey & Bohlman Stereo F.M. Radio Handbk. vii. 144 The sky-wave..may be refracted back towards the earth by the layers of ionized gas. |
| absol. 1678 Hobbes Decam. x. Wks. 1845 VII. 172 It will follow that all transparent bodies that equally refract are equally hard; which I think is not true. |
| transf. and fig. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 381 The sine of the angle refracted in one inclination is to the sine of the angle refracted in another inclination [etc.]. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 125 These metaphysick rights.., like rays of light,..are, by the laws of nature, refracted from their straight line. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. v. II. 355 No other body of men have ever exhibited a more single⁓minded and unworldly zeal, refracted by no personal interests. |
b. To produce by refraction. rare.
| 1728–46 Thomson Spring 202 Meantime, refracted from yon eastern cloud..the grand ethereal bow Shoots up immense. 1762–9 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 277 His languid fires..Refract along the dusk a crimson blaze. |
c. intr. To undergo refraction.
| 1964 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. II. 84 If waves reach the beach unaffected by offshore underwater topography one has an easier task than if waves are breaking and refracting around an offshore bar. |
† 2. trans. To throw back; to reflect, return. Obs.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. ii. v. 109 The Turkes weare great Tulipantes..to refract the Sun beams. 1658 Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. Ep. Ded., The air..beating against the rough-cast walls of the hollow place, and refracted, makes a sound. 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. 1 [Algum wood] was most precious,..fit to refract sounds. |
† 3. a. To break up; to impair. Obs. rare.
| 1647 Hammond Power of Keys Pref. A 4 The several excellencies of the other three..may..be found at least, as in mixture, refracted and compounded in this fourth. a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. iii. (1677) 318 Those common Notions which yet remain in the Humane Nature, though refracted and abated by the Fall of Man. |
b. Chem. To analyse (nitre) in order to discover the percentage of impurities (cf. refraction 6).
| 1842 Parnell Chem. Anal. (1845) 478 The most usual method of refracting nitre consists in determining, 1°, the amount of water lost by exposure to a moderate heat; 2°, the amount of insoluble matter [etc.]. |
4. Ophthalm. To measure the focusing characteristics of (an eye) or of the eyes of (a person). Also absol.
| 1897 J. Thorington Retinoscopy v. 45 To give a patient thus refracted with the retinoscope his emmetropic correction..an allowance must always be made, in all meridians, of one diopter. 1904 ― Refraction & how to Refract (ed. 3) ix. 235 If a young subject must be refracted without drops, then the fogging method must be followed. Ibid., The [manifest] method by which the eyes of patients past forty-five years of age are refracted. 1953 N. Bier Contact Lens Routine & Pract. iv. 56 If the measurements..in the corneal fit were 8·75/13, do not refract with a trial lens of 8 mm radius and 13 mm diameter. 1968 Sci. Jrnl. Dec. 21/1 Normally when ‘refracting’ human patients an ophthalmologist relies on verbal reports and applies corrective lenses until the subject says that he sees most clearly. |
Hence reˈfractable a., refrangible. rare—1.
| 1676 H. More Remarks 100 For as bodies are only tangible, so they are only reflexible and refractable. |