Re*flect" (r?*fl?kt"), v. t.
[imp. & p. p. Reflected; p. pr. & vb.
n. Reflecting.] [L. reflectere,
reflexum; pref. re- re- + flectere to bend or
turn. See Flexible, and cf. Reflex,
v.] 1. To bend back; to give a
backwa&?;d turn to; to throw back; especially, to cause to return
after striking upon any surface; as, a mirror reflects rays of
light; polished metals reflect heat.
Let me mind the reader to reflect his eye on our
quotations.
Fuller.
Bodies close together reflect their own
color.
Dryden.
2. To give back an image or likeness of; to
mirror.
Nature is the glass reflecting God,
As by the sea reflected is the sun.
Young.
Re*flect" v. i. 1.
To throw back light, heat, or the like; to return rays or
beams.
2. To be sent back; to rebound as from a
surface; to revert; to return.
Whose virtues will, I hope,
Reflect on Rome, as Titan's rays on earth.
Shak.
3. To throw or turn back the thoughts upon
anything; to contemplate. Specifically: To attend earnestly to what
passes within the mind; to attend to the facts or phenomena of
consciousness; to use attention or earnest thought; to meditate;
especially, to think in relation to moral truth or rules.
We can not be said to reflect upon any external
object, except so far as that object has been previously perceived,
and its image become part and parcel of our intellectual
furniture.
Sir W. Hamilton.
All men are concious of the operations of their own
minds, at all times, while they are awake, but there few who
reflect upon them, or make them objects of
thought.
Reid.
As I much reflected, much I
mourned.
Prior.
4. To cast reproach; to cause censure or
dishonor.
Errors of wives reflect on husbands
still.
Dryden.
Neither do I reflect in the least upon the
memory of his late majesty.
Swift.
Syn. -- To consider; think; cogitate; mediate; contemplate;
ponder; muse; ruminate.
