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Reflex   /rˈiflɛks/   Listen
noun
Reflex  n.  
1.
Reflection; the light reflected from an illuminated surface to one in shade. "Yon gray is not the morning's eye, 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow." "On the depths of death there swims The reflex of a human face."
2.
(Physiol.) An involuntary movement produced by reflex action.
Patellar reflex. See Knee jerk, under Knee.


adjective
Reflex  adj.  
1.
Directed back; attended by reflection; retroactive; introspective. "The reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions."
2.
Produced in reaction, in resistance, or in return.
3.
(Physiol.) Of, pertaining to, or produced by, stimulus or excitation without the necessary intervention of consciousness.
Reflex action (Physiol.), any action performed involuntarily in consequence of an impulse or impression transmitted along afferent nerves to a nerve center, from which it is reflected to an efferent nerve, and so calls into action certain muscles, organs, or cells.
Reflex nerve (Physiol.), an excito-motory nerve. See Exito-motory.


verb
Reflex  v. t.  
1.
To reflect. (Obs.)
2.
To bend back; to turn back.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Reflex" Quotes from Famous Books



... The reflex act of the mind, which these new philosophers put forward as the solution of all human pursuits, rarely presents itself but to the speculative enquirer in his closet. The savage never dreams of it. The active man, engaged in the busy scenes of life, thinks little, and on rare occasions ...
— Thoughts on Man - His Nature, Productions and Discoveries, Interspersed with - Some Particulars Respecting the Author • William Godwin
... needed."... "Lives solitude only for one? Must its charm by my presence so soon be undone? Ah, cannot two share it? What needs it for this?— The same thought in both hearts,—be it sorrow or bliss; If my heart be the reflex of yours, lady—you, Are you not yet alone,—even though we ...
— Lucile • Owen Meredith
... perception, of recollection, or of imagination, in the plural number signify the ideas belonging to perception, to recollection, or to imagination; whilst the idea of perception, of recollection, or of imagination, in the singular number is used for what is termed "a reflex idea of any of those operations ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. I - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin
... would involuntarily stoop to pick her up, straighten her dress, and soothe her woe. There was no hearty pleasure in his service even now. Nobody was certain that he felt any pleasure at all. His helpfulness was not spontaneous; it seemed a kind of reflex action, a survival of some former state of mind or heart; for he did his favours in a dream, nor heard any thanks: yet the elixir was working in ...
— Marm Lisa • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... a disease resulting from infection of a wound by a specific micro-organism, the bacillus tetani, and characterised by increased reflex excitability, hypertonus, and spasm of one or ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles


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