REFRACT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Refract

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verb

Refract v. t. (past & past part. refracted; pres. part. refracting)

To bend sharply and abruptly back; to break off.

To break the natural course of, as rays of light orr heat, when passing from one transparent medium to another of different density; to cause to deviate from a direct course by an action distinct from reflection; as, a dense medium refrcts the rays of light as they pass into it from a rare medium.

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$Etymology of 'Refract'$ Etymology of 'Refract'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Refract" Quotes from Famous Books

... sun's rays had to penetrate. In so far as the dust-particles were opaque they would obscure these rays; where they were transparent or polished they would refract and reflect them. That the material of which those dust-particles was composed was very various has been ascertained, proved, and recorded by the Krakatoa Committee. The attempt to expound this matter would ...

— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... 'dioptric' apparatus the light emanates from a lamp with several concentric wicks, the flame of which, being kindled by a very active draught, attains to great intensity. In fixed lights the lenses refract the rays issuing from the lamp so as to cause them to form a luminous sheet which grazes the sea-horizon. In revolving lights the lenses gather up the rays into distinct beams, resembling the spokes ...

— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall

Words linked to "Refract" : refractive, determine, find out, subject, optics, find, ascertain