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LUSTRE
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
Irregular inflected form: lustra
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A surface coating for ceramics or porcelain
Synonyms:
luster; lustre
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("lustre" is a kind of...):
glaze (a coating for ceramics, metal, etc.)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The visual property of something that shines with reflected light
Synonyms:
luster; lustre; sheen; shininess
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("lustre" is a kind of...):
effulgence; radiance; radiancy; refulgence; refulgency; shine (the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light)
Derivation:
lustrous (reflecting light)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A quality that outshines the usual
Synonyms:
brilliancy; luster; lustre; splendor; splendour
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("lustre" is a kind of...):
brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)
Context examples:
C'est pour vos peches—pour vos peches, they droned, looking at the travellers with sad lack-lustre eyes, and then bent to their bloody work once more without heed to the prayers and persuasions which were addressed to them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
After she left him he sat drearily, with drooping shoulders, on the edge of the bed, gazing about him with lack-lustre eyes that saw nothing until the torn wrapper of a magazine, which had come in the morning's mail and which lay unopened, shot a gleam of light into his darkened brain.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Blameless as I was, and knew that I was, in reference to any wrong she could possibly suspect me of, I shrunk before her strange eyes, quite unable to endure their hungry lustre.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Mary had a milder and more open countenance than Blanche; softer features too, and a skin some shades fairer (Miss Ingram was dark as a Spaniard)—but Mary was deficient in life: her face lacked expression, her eye lustre; she had nothing to say, and having once taken her seat, remained fixed like a statue in its niche.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
They woke, they kindled: first, they glowed in the bright tint of her cheek, which till this hour I had never seen but pale and bloodless; then they shone in the liquid lustre of her eyes, which had suddenly acquired a beauty more singular than that of Miss Temple's—a beauty neither of fine colour nor long eyelash, nor pencilled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
His countenance reminded one of a lamp quenched, waiting to be re-lit—and alas! it was not himself that could now kindle the lustre of animated expression: he was dependent on another for that office!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
A soft sound of rising now became audible; the curtain was swept back from the arch; through it appeared the dining-room, with its lit lustre pouring down light on the silver and glass of a magnificent dessert-service covering a long table; a band of ladies stood in the opening; they entered, and the curtain fell behind them.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And now vegetation matured with vigour; Lowood shook loose its tresses; it became all green, all flowery; its great elm, ash, and oak skeletons were restored to majestic life; woodland plants sprang up profusely in its recesses; unnumbered varieties of moss filled its hollows, and it made a strange ground-sunshine out of the wealth of its wild primrose plants: I have seen their pale gold gleam in overshadowed spots like scatterings of the sweetest lustre.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
We were, as I have said, in the dining-room: the lustre, which had been lit for dinner, filled the room with a festal breadth of light; the large fire was all red and clear; the purple curtains hung rich and ample before the lofty window and loftier arch; everything was still, save the subdued chat of Adele (she dared not speak loud), and, filling up each pause, the beating of winter rain against the panes.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)