1. Throwing back images; as, a reflective mirror.
In the reflective stream the sighing bride, viewing her charms.
Prior. 2. Capable of exercising thought or judgment; as, reflective reason. Prior.
His perceptive and reflective faculties . . . thus acquired a precocious and extraordinary development.
Motley. 3. Addicted to introspective or meditative habits; as, a reflective person.
4. (Gram.) Reflexive; reciprocal.
— Re*flect"ive*ly, adv. — Re*flect"ive*ness, n. "Reflectiveness of manner." J. C. Shairp.
Reflector
(Re*flect"or) n. [Cf. F. réflecteur.]
1. One who, or that which, reflects. Boyle.
2. (Physics) (a) Something having a polished surface for reflecting light or heat, as a mirror, a speculum,
etc. (b) A reflecting telescope. (c) A device for reflecting sound.
Reflex
(Re"flex) a. [L. reflexus, p. p. of reflectere: cf. F. réflexe. See Reflect.]
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.
Sir M. Hale. 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.
Reflex
(Re"flex) n. [L. reflexus a bending back. See Reflect.]
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.
Shak.
On the depths of death there swims
The reflex of a human face.
Tennyson. 2. (Physiol.) An involuntary movement produced by reflex action.
Patellar reflex. See Knee jerk, under Knee.
Reflex
(Re*flex") v. t. [L. reflexus, p. p. of reflectere. See Reflect.]
1. To reflect. [Obs.] Shak.
2. To bend back; to turn back. J. Gregory.
Reflexed
(Re*flexed") a. Bent backward or outward.
