▪ I. irradiate, ppl. a.
(ɪˈreɪdɪət)
[ad. L. irradiātus, pa. pple. of irradiāre (see next).]
Illumined; made bright or brilliant. Const. as pple. or adj.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 129 Our soule irradiate or made bryght with the lyght of the aungell. 1725 Pope Odyss. x. 583 The Theban Bard, depriv'd of sight, Within, irradiate with prophetic light. 1729 Savage Wanderer ii. 86 A phœnix, with irradiate crest. 1814 Cary Dante (Chandos) 277 The sky Erewhile irradiate only with his beam. 1874 Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. i. 24 Sailing through..tracts of light irradiate heavens. |
▪ II. irradiate, v.
(ɪˈreɪdɪeɪt)
Also 7 inradiate.
[f. ppl. stem of L. irradiāre to shine forth, f. ir- (ir-1) + radiāre to shine, f. radius ray: cf. prec.]
1. trans. a. To direct rays of light upon; to shine upon; to make bright by causing light to fall upon; to illumine.
| 1623 Cockeram, Irradiate, to shine vpon. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. i. 7 As the greater light irradiates and enlightens the world. a 1794 Sir W. Jones Hymn to Lacshm{iacu} Wks. 1799 VI. 363 When thy smile irradiates yon blue fields, Observant Indra sheds the genial show'r. 1805 Southey Madoc ii. xviii, The midnight lightnings..That with their awful blaze, irradiate heaven, Then leave a blacker night. 1873 L. Ferguson Disc. 64 The face that was irradiated on the Mount was the very face his disciples knew so well. |
b. spec. in Astrol. To cast beams upon. Also absol.
| 1603 Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. xxiii. 498 Originally they were friendly irradiated of Iupiter, the Sunne, Venus, and Mercurie. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. i. iv. 75 In the Horoscope, irradiated by those quartile aspects of Saturne or Mars, the childe shall be mad or melancholy. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies iii. i. 393 {saturn} from the Opposite Sign irradiates between {male} and {female} so posited. |
† c. To influence with or as with rays of heat or anything else of radiant character. Obs.
| 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xvii. 48 The neighbouring Spermatick Vessels are irradiated and virtuated by the Kidneys, even as the Brain irradiates the lower Parts, by an inbred property resembling light. a 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. iii. 76 That Ethereal or Solar heat, that must digest, influence, irradiate, and put those more simple parts of Matter into motion and coalition. |
d. To expose to the action of some kind of radiation (other than visible light, as X-rays, ultra-violet radiation, or neutrons).
| 1901 N.Y. Med. Jrnl. 16 Nov. 909/1 The inguinal tumor was removed..and now the inguinal area is also irradiated. 1927 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. LXXIII. 383 Cholesterol solutions were also irradiated by the γ-rays from radium emanation. 1952 Cook & Duncan Mod. Radiochem. Pract. v. 203 To obtain the maximum yield of a radio⁓element by use of a laboratory neutron source it is often of advantage to irradiate an aqueous solution of the absorbing element. 1957 Technology Mar. 14/2 Food can be preserved for long periods if irradiated. 1963 Bowen & Gibbons Radioactivation Analysis ii. 5 When a material is bombarded or irradiated by the nuclear particles produced in a nuclear reactor, particle accelerator, or other suitable source, some of the atoms present in the sample will interact with the bombarding particles. 1964 M. Pyke Food Sci. & Technol. viii. 153 By irradiating frozen whole egg with from 0·1 to 1·0 Mrad, it is possible to destroy certain pathological micro-organisms. 1971 Nature 4 June 317/1 When the spores were initially irradiated with γ-rays, the germination rate increased remarkably. 1973 Sci. Amer. Apr. 71/1 The diffusion constant can now be determined by irradiating the silicon with slow neutrons and measuring the energy of the alpha particles that emerge. |
2. fig. and transf. a. To illumine with spiritual or intellectual light; to throw light upon anything intellectually obscure.
| 1627 Feltham Resolves ii. [i.] xiv. (1628) 40 It..inradiates the soul. 1638 Rouse Heav. Univ. ii. (1702) 19 Universally to irradiate and teach them. a 1710 G. Bull Serm. II. v. (R.), That his mind was irradiated with a divine illumination. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. IV. iv. viii. §48. 368 He first irradiated the entire annals of antiquity..with flashes of light. 1864 Bowen Logic 10 With their light they irradiate and make clearly intelligible everything to which they are referred. |
b. To brighten as with light; to light up (the face) with beauty, gladness, animation, etc.
| 1651 Sherburne Rape of Helen Poems 55 Such Beauty did his Looks irradiate. 1805 Wordsw. Prelude ii. 239 A virtue which irradiates and exalts Objects through widest intercourse of sense. 1843 Lever J. Hinton xxxv. (1878) 241 The priest's jovial good humour irradiated his happy countenance. 1877 Black Green Past. xxix. 236 The sublime features of Madame Columbus, now irradiated with triumph. |
c. transf. To adorn with splendour.
| 1717 Pope Eloisa 136 No weeping orphan saw his father's stores Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors. |
3. To radiate; to send forth in or as in rays.
| a 1617 Bayne Lect. (1634) 115 Light irradiated upon our mindes. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 63 Heat cannot be irradiated or move from bodies, as light does, either by reflection or transmission. 1893 Chicago Advance 21 Sept., Whose presence upon the platform had irradiated strength and cheer. |
† 4. intr. To radiate, to diverge in the form of rays. Obs.
| 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 84 Irradiating all manner of ways into the form of a Globe, the several Selenites, like so many radii, all pointing to the center. a 1704 Locke Paraphr. 2 Cor. iv. 6 note, A Communication of Glory or Light..which irradiated from his Face when he descended from the Mount. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. II. xxi. 414 Their powers decay according to their distances from the centres from which they irradiated. |
5. intr. To emit rays, to shine (on or upon).
| 1642 W. Price Serm. 17 That not a beame of divine grace should..irradiate on his soule. 1656 S. Winter Serm. 141 If the Lord irradiate upon the souls of children in heaven. 1784 Bp. Horne Lett. Infidel. x. 167 Day was the state of the hemisphere, on which light irradiated. |
6. intr. To become radiant; to light up.
| 1800 Coleridge in C. K. Paul W. Godwin (1876) II. 3 Lamb every now and then irradiates. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. xx. (1860) 462 The eye is taught to brighten, the lip to smile, and the whole countenance to irradiate. |
Hence iˈrradiating vbl. n. and ppl. a.; whence iˈrradiatingly adv., in an irradiating manner.
| 1651 Hobbes Govt. & Soc. Ep. Ded., The light to be carried thither for the irradiating its doubts. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 219 note, As the Sun does upon the Rainbow, by gilding of it with its golden, and irradiating beams. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 75 An irradiating body, such as a candle. 1857 Dunglison Med. Lex. 510 Irradiation,..shooting or proceeding from a centre—as an irradiating pain. 1893 G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 40 Amid the plumed and sceptred ones Irradiatingly Jovian. |