Hypertext Webster Gateway: "crystalline"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Crystalline \Crys"tal*line\ (kr?s"tal-l?n or -l?n; 277), a. [L.
crystallinus, from Gr. ????: cf. F. cristallin. See
{Crystal}.]
1. Consisting, or made, of crystal.

Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. --Shak.

2. Formed by crystallization; like crystal in texture.

Their crystalline structure. --Whewell.

3. Imperfectly crystallized; as, granite is only crystalline,
while quartz crystal is perfectly crystallized.

4. Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid.
``The crystalline sky.'' --Milton.

{Crystalline heavens}, or {Crystalline spheres}, in the
Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres
imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars
and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens,
which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those
within it), in order to explain certain movements of the
heavenly bodies.

{Crystalline lens} (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the
eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of
rodlike cells derived from the external embryonic
epithelium.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Crystalline \Crys"tal*line\, n.
1. A crystalline substance.

2. See {Aniline}. [Obs.]

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

crystalline
adj 1: consisting of or containing or of the nature of crystals;
"granite is crystalline" [ant: {noncrystalline}]
2: distinctly or sharply outlined; "crystalline sharpness of
outline"- John Buchan
3: transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity;
"the cold crystalline water of melted snow"; "crystal
clear skies"; "could see the sand on the bottom of the
limpid pool"; "lucid air"; "a pellucid brook";
"transparent cristal" [syn: {crystal clear}, {limpid}, {lucid},
{pellucid}, {transparent}]


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