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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Refractive

Refractive \Re*fract"ive\ (r?*fr?kt"?v), a. [Cf. F. r['e]fractif. See Refract.] Serving or having power to refract, or turn from a direct course; pertaining to refraction; as, refractive surfaces; refractive powers.

Refractive index. (Opt.) See Index of refraction, under Index.

Absolute refractive index (Opt.), the index of refraction of a substances when the ray passes into it from a vacuum.

Relative refractive index (of two media) (Opt.), the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction for a ray passing out of one of the media into the other.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
refractive

1670s, from Late Latin refractivus, or from refract + -ive.

Wiktionary
refractive

a. Describing that which refracts.

WordNet
refractive
  1. adj. of or relating to or capable of refraction; "the refractive characteristics of the eye" [syn: refractile]

  2. capable of changing the direction (of a light or sound wave) [syn: deflective]

Wikipedia

Usage examples of "refractive".

A refractive, chromed arm, one of four, waved accusingly at Whiskin while the two little Whiskins stood close to their mother, goggle-eyed at the confrontation.

A refractive, chromed arm, one of four, waved accusingly at Whiskin while the two little Whiskins stood close to their mother, goggle-eyed at the confrontation.

The refractive properties of the Aurite crystal will scatter cohesive laser waves into harmless beams of light.

He could see, rearing up above the waves, the spires and minarets and twisted towers and diamantine domes, and even, in the misty height, the very palace of the High Shivantak—and the whole image ghostly, fringed with refractive rainbows.

CH, CN and CC functional groups are evident in the imaginary part of the refractive index, as expected from the gas phase products that are the tholin precursors.

Indeed, so great was the temperature at which they operated, the globes were filled with inert gas in order to prevent even the highly refractive tungsten from burning in the air!

An optometer is an instrument for measuring refractive errors in eyes-in order that corrective lenses may be prescribed.

But he had called for it to find, in its memory-banks, an organic compound of such-and-such a crystalline form, such-and-such a diffusion rate, such-and-such a specific gravity, and such-and-such a refractive index.

He placed a slide in the stage of a polarizing microscope, which, like Ray-Ban sunglasses, reduced glare, splitting light in different waves with different refractive index values to give us yet another clue as to the identity of the material.

But in any case, if the local gravitational field is effectively the propagating ether, the speed of a traveling disturbance will vary with its density, and the same result can be arrived at by treating it as a refractive medium in uncurved space.

But the essential phase was to place the transparent object whose refractive index was to be lowered between two radiating centres of a sort of ethereal vibration, of which I will tell you more fully later.

They all looked to where they suspected Nathan's spirit to be-out in the darkness of space where there was nothing whose refractive index Nathan could affect and become visible.

He took a drug which made his body of the same refractive index as air.

The refractive index of a transparent medium is a measure of light's being slowed down by successive forward re-emissions.

For instance, the refractive index of the lake fluid was very sensitive to the percentage of dissolved methane.