Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Physiology Being an involuntary action or response, such as a sneeze, blink, or hiccup.
  • adjective Produced as an automatic response or reaction.
  • adjective Bent, turned, or thrown back; reflected.
  • adjective Reflexed.
  • noun Physiology An involuntary response to a stimulus.
  • noun A person's ability to respond to new or changing stimuli.
  • noun Psychology An unlearned or instinctive response to a stimulus.
  • noun Linguistics A form or feature that reflects or represents an earlier, often reconstructed, form or feature having undergone phonetic or other change.
  • noun Something, such as light or heat, that is reflected.
  • noun An image produced by reflection.
  • noun A copy or reproduction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bend back; turn back.
  • To reflect; cast or throw, as light; let shine.
  • Thrown or turned backward; having a backward direction; reflective; reactive.
  • In painting, illuminated by light reflected from another part of the same picture. See reflected light, under reflected.
  • In oiol., bent back; reflexed.
  • A sensation supposed to be produced by the irritation of an efferent or motor nerve: but the existence of the phenomenon is denied.
  • noun Reflection; an image produced by reflection.
  • noun A mere copy; an adapted form: as, a Middle Latin reflex of an Old French word.
  • noun Light reflected from an illuminated surface to one in shade; hence, in painting, the illumination of one body or a part of it by light reflected from another body represented in the same piece. See reflected light, under reflected.
  • noun Same as reflex action (which see, under reflex, a.).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Directed back; attended by reflection; retroactive; introspective.
  • adjective Produced in reaction, in resistance, or in return.
  • adjective (Physiol.) Of, pertaining to, or produced by, stimulus or excitation without the necessary intervention of consciousness.
  • adjective (Physiol.) any action performed involuntarily in consequence of an impulse or impression transmitted along afferent nerves to a nerve center, from which it is reflected to an efferent nerve, and so calls into action certain muscles, organs, or cells.
  • adjective (Physiol.) an excito-motory nerve. See Exito-motory.
  • transitive verb obsolete To reflect.
  • transitive verb To bend back; to turn back.
  • noun Reflection; the light reflected from an illuminated surface to one in shade.
  • noun (Physiol.) An involuntary movement produced by reflex action.
  • noun See Knee jerk, under Knee.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing.
  • noun linguistics A corresponding phoneme in a daughter language.
  • adjective Bent, turned back or reflected.
  • adjective Produced automatically by a stimulus.
  • adjective geometry Having greater than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees.
  • verb to bend, turn back or reflect
  • verb to respond to a stimulus

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus
  • adjective without volition or conscious control

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English reflexen, to refract light, bend back, from Latin reflexus, past participle of reflectere, to bend back; see reflect.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin reflexus, past participle of reflectere ("to bend back").

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Examples

Comments

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  • A broken jaw.

    October 12, 2007

  • Huh. I'm waiting for mollusque to show up. *whistles* Lob...lolly...gag...reflex...? What's next? *twiddles thumbs*

    June 26, 2008

  • me too! ha! Much better than the Da Vinci code.

    June 26, 2008

  • Waiting for action, huh?

    June 26, 2008