Mirror definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (33)

American Heritage Dictionary (4)

noun A surface capable of reflecting sufficient undiffused light to form an image of an object placed in front of it. Also called looking glass.
noun Something that faithfully reflects or gives a true picture of something else.
noun Something worthy of imitation.

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Century Dictionary (23)

A polished surface, as of metal, or of glass backed by a metal or other opaque substance, used to reflect objects, especially to reflect the face or person as an aid in making the toilet. The mirrors of the ancients were of polished metal, as are those of the Japanese and some other Oriental nations. Glass mirrors, consisting of transparent glass with a backing of metal to act as the reflecting surface, did not become common until the sixteenth century. Mirrors have been used for decoration of the person, being sewed to the material of the dress and serving as larger and more brilliant spangles; they have also been used in the interior decoration of buildings, especially in Persia and the East Indies. (Compare ardish.) The common method of preparing glass mirrors is to coat one side of the glass with an amalgam of tin and mercury (called silvering); but mirrors are now often made by depositing pure silver on the glass. Now in this mirrour loke ʒou soo; In ʒoure free wille the choice lijs. To heuen or helle whither ʒe wille goo. Hymns to Virgin, etc. (E. E. T. S.) p. 78. In this mirrour she shall see Her self as much transform'd as me. Congreve, Semele, iii. 3.
Specifically, in optics, a surface of glass or polished substance that forms images by the reflection of rays of light; a speculum. Optical mirrors are plane, convex, or concave. A plane mirror gives a virtual image whose apparent position is on the opposite side of the mirror from the reflected body and at an equal distance from it. A concave spherical mirror (supposing that it includes only a small part of a huge spherical surface) reflects rays parallel to its axis, as those from the sun, to a point (F in fig. 1) called the principal focus, whose distance from the mirror is equal to half the radius of the sphere of which the surface of the mirror forms a part. Rays proceeding from a luminous point upon the axis beyond the center (L in fig. 2) are reflected to a focus, f, between the center and F; and these two points are called conjugate foci, since they are interchangeable; a luminous body at L has a real inverted and diminished image formed at feminine If, however, the luminous body be at f, the image is formed at L, also real and inverted, but magnified. If the luminous body is at F, the principal focus, the reflected rays are sent out in parallel lines; if nearer the mirror than F, the rays after reflection are divergent, and the image is virtual, erect, and magnified. In a concave parabolic mirror parallel rays are brought exactly to a focus at the geometrical focus; hence this form is suitable for reflectors, as in the headlight of a locomotive. The images formed by convex mirrors are always virtual and smaller than the object.
Figuratively, that in or by which anything is shown or exemplified; hence, a pattern; an exemplar. That book [the Koran] seythe also that Jesu was sent from God alle myghty for to ben Myrour and Ensample and Tokne to alle men. Mandeville, Travels, p. 133. How farest thou, mirror of all martial men? Shak., 1 Hen. VI., i. 4. 74.

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Examples (50)

Like us, she knows that that individual in the mirror is her. — Susan Savage-Rumbaugh on apes
He straightened his clothing, which had been disarranged in his haste, gave a glance at himself in the mirror over the workbench--the mirror was there largely as a light reflector--and carefully restored a lock of his hair, which was plentiful, although a pale color. — 055 - The Feathered Octopus
All I see in the mirror is the reflection of a man's face. — F ;SF; - vol 093 issue 01 - July 1997
At one side of the mirror was a living being of some kind, but the intervening mists prevented Blake from making out any details beyond a hazy glimpse of a cluster of what seemed to be long slender snake-like black tentacles. — Astounding Stories, February 1932
The vision in the mirror was the woman she might have been if she had taken a few different turns in life. — Laura Lipmann - By a Spider's Tread

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glass · lamp · screen · window · plate · clock · frame · chair · picture · furniture · ring · cabinet

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English mirour, from Old French mireor, from mirer, to look at, from Latin mīrārī, to wonder at, from mīrus, wonderful; see smei- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (2)

Early modern English also mirrour, myrror; from Middle English mirrour, myrrore, myrroure, myroure, mirour, from Old French mireor, mirour, mirur, French miroir = Provencal mirador = Italian miratore, miradore, a looking-glass (= Spanish mirador, a lookout, balcony: see mirador), from Middle Latin as if *miratorium, from Latin mirari, wonder at, Middle Latin mirare (later Italian mirare = Spanish Portuguese mirar = French mirer), look at, from mirus, wonderful: see admire, miracle.
from mirror, n.

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