The Collaborative International Dictionary
Refract \Re*fract"\ (r?*fr$kt"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Refracted; p. pr. & vb. n. Refracting.] [L. refractus, p. p. of refringere; pref. re- re- + frangere to break: cf. F. r['e]fracter. SEe FRacture, and cf. Refrain, n.]
To bend sharply and abruptly back; to break off.
To break the natural course of, as rays of light orr heat, when passing from one transparent medium to another of different density; to cause to deviate from a direct course by an action distinct from reflection; as, a dense medium refrcts the rays of light as they pass into it from a rare medium.
Refracting \Re*fract"ing\, a. Serving or tending to refract; as, a refracting medium.
Refracting angle of a prism (Opt.), the angle of a triangular prism included between the two sides through which the refracted beam passes in the decomposition of light.
Refracting telescope. (Opt.) See under Telescope.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of refract English)
WordNet
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "refracting".
The parquet floor, the great wall panels, the allegorical ceiling dangling its chandeliers: all must be erected and connected, and suffusing and refracting golden light.
Beyond the rink, the floor of the cave was one huge mass of blue ice, humped and creased, refracting the lights and fading into the distance.
The unlidded window casts a square spotlight down through the refracting corpuscles of moisture and culminates in a faint rainbow beside me.
Interposed between the axis-cylinder and this tube, there is a fluid, containing a considerable quantity of fatty matter, from which is deposited a highly refracting substance which lines the tube.
If the refracting atmosphere were some 65 miles in depth, these proportions were correct.
I killed no vases, no beer glasses nor light bulbs, I opened up no showcase nor deprived any spectacles of their power of vision -- no, my vocal rancor was directed against all the balls, bells, light refracting silvery soap bubbles that graced the Ochristmastree: with a tinkle tinkle and a klingaling, the tree decorations were shattered into dust.
Communion, while the stone is refracting its light into the blood, Wigg and the sorceresses will be powerless, because the stone will be without its color.
I can see ultrastructure, eyes zooming into coiled distance, the blue lucent flare of pseudocrystals refracting laser light.
The different wavelengths are refracted by characteristic amounts, the shortest wavelengths exhibiting the highest refraction, and longer and longer wavelengths refracting progressively less and less.