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Webster 1913 Edition


Reflex

Re′flex

(r?′fl?ks)
,
Adj.
[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
.

Re′flex

(r?′fl?ks; formerly r?-fl?ks′)
,
Noun.
[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.
Shakespeare
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
.

Re-flex′

(r?-fl?ks′)
,
Verb.
T.
[L.
reflexus
, p. p. of
reflectere
. See
Reflect
.]
1.
To reflect.
[Obs.]
Shak.
2.
To bend back; to turn back.
J. Gregory.

Webster 1828 Edition


Reflex

RE'FLEX

,
Adj.
[L. reflexus.]
1.
Directed back; as a reflex act of the soul, the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions.
2.
Designating the parts of a painting illuminated by light reflected from another part of the same picture.
3.
In botany, bent back; reflected.

Definition 2024


reflex

reflex

English

Noun

reflex (plural reflexes)

  1. An automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing.
    • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
      He met Luis Suarez's cross at the far post, only for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech to show brilliant reflexes to deflect his header on to the bar. Carroll turned away to lead Liverpool's insistent protests that the ball had crossed the line but referee Phil Dowd and assistant referee Andrew Garratt waved play on, with even a succession of replays proving inconclusive.
  2. (linguistics) the descendant of an earlier language element, such as a word or phoneme, in a daughter language
  3. (obsolete) Reflection; the light reflected from an illuminated surface to one in shade.
    • Shakespeare
      Yon gray is not the morning's eye, / 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow.
    • Tennyson
      On the depths of death there swims / The reflex of a human face.

Translations

Adjective

reflex (comparative more reflex, superlative most reflex)

  1. Bent, turned back or reflected.
    • Sir M. Hale
      the reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions
  2. Produced automatically by a stimulus.
  3. (geometry, of an angle) Having greater than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees.
    • 1878, James Maurice Wilson, Elementary Geometry, MacMillan, page 10:
      A polygon is said to be convex when no one of its angles is reflex.
    • 1895, David Eugen Smith and Wooster Woodruff Bernan, New Plane and Solid Geometry, page 7:
      An angle less than a right angle is said to be acute; one greater than a right angle but less than a straight angle is said to be obtuse; one greater than a straight angle but less than a perigon is said to be reflex or convex.
    • 1958, Howard Fehr, “On Teaching Dihedral Angle and Steradian” in The Mathematics Teacher, v 51, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, page 275:
      If the reflex region is the interior of the angle, the dihedral angle is reflex.
    • 1991, B. Falcidieno et al, “Configurable Representations in Feature-based Modelling” in Eurographics '91: Proceedings, North-Holland, page 145:
      A reflex edge of a polyhedron is an edge where the inner dihedral angle subtended by two incident faces is greater than 180°.
    • 2001, Esther M. Arkin et al, “On the Reflexivity of Point Sets”, in Algorithms and data structures: 7th International Workshop, WADS 2001: Proceedings, Springer, page 195:
      We say that an angle is convex if it is not reflex.
    • 2004, Ana Paula Tomás and António Leslie Bajuelos, “Quadratic-Time Linear-Space Algorithms Generating Orthogonal Polygons with a Given Number of Vertices”, in Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2004 Proceedings, part 3, Springer, page 117:
      P denotes a polygon and r the number of reflex vertices.
  4. (photography) Of a camera or camera mechanism, using a mirror to reflect the image onto a ground-glass viewfinder, allowing the photographer to see it up to the moment of exposure.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

reflex (third-person singular simple present reflexes, present participle reflexing, simple past and past participle reflexed)

  1. to bend, turn back or reflect
  2. to respond to a stimulus

Czech

Noun

reflex m

  1. reflex

Hungarian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈrɛflɛks]
  • Hyphenation: ref‧lex

Noun

reflex (plural reflexek)

  1. reflex

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative reflex reflexek
accusative reflexet reflexeket
dative reflexnek reflexeknek
instrumental reflexszel reflexekkel
causal-final reflexért reflexekért
translative reflexszé reflexekké
terminative reflexig reflexekig
essive-formal reflexként reflexekként
essive-modal
inessive reflexben reflexekben
superessive reflexen reflexeken
adessive reflexnél reflexeknél
illative reflexbe reflexekbe
sublative reflexre reflexekre
allative reflexhez reflexekhez
elative reflexből reflexekből
delative reflexről reflexekről
ablative reflextől reflexektől
Possessive forms of reflex
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. reflexem reflexeim
2nd person sing. reflexed reflexeid
3rd person sing. reflexe reflexei
1st person plural reflexünk reflexeink
2nd person plural reflexetek reflexeitek
3rd person plural reflexük reflexeik

Derived terms


Swedish

Noun

reflex c

  1. a reflex, a (quick and spontaneous) reaction
  2. a reflector (tag, strip or band; carried by pedestrians and bicyclists to be visible from automobiles)

Declension

Inflection of reflex 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative reflex reflexen reflexer reflexerna
Genitive reflex reflexens reflexers reflexernas