Both Uses of
refract
in
The House of Mirth
- They had paused before the table on which the bride's jewels were displayed, and Lily's heart gave an envious throb as she caught the refraction of light from their surfaces—the milky gleam of perfectly matched pearls, the flash of rubies relieved against contrasting velvet, the intense blue rays of sapphires kindled into light by surrounding diamonds: all these precious tints enhanced and deepened by the varied art of their setting.†
Chpt 1.8
- It outlined the facts with a cold precision unmodified by shade or colour, and refracted, as it were, from the blank walls of the surrounding limitations: she had opened windows from which no sky was ever visible.†
Chpt 2.7 *
Definition:
-
(refract) To change the velocity of a beam of light (apparently bending it) or other wave-form as it passes (at an angle) from one medium into another.