reflex

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Bent, turned, or thrown back; reflected.
2. adj. Physiology Being an involuntary action or response, such as a sneeze, blink, or hiccup.
3. adj. Produced as an automatic response or reaction: reflex opposition to change.
4. n. Something, such as light or heat, that is reflected.
5. n. An image produced by reflection.
6. n. A copy or reproduction.
7. n. Physiology An involuntary response to a stimulus.
8. n. Psychology An unlearned or instinctive response to a stimulus.
9. n. Linguistics A form or feature that reflects or represents an earlier, often reconstructed, form or feature having undergone phonetic or other change.
10. v. To bend, turn back, or reflect.
11. v. To cause to undergo a reflex process.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To bend back; turn back.
2. To reflect; cast or throw, as light; let shine.
3. Thrown or turned backward; having a backward direction; reflective; reactive.
4. In painting, illuminated by light reflected from another part of the same picture. See reflected light, under reflected.
5. In oiol., bent back; reflexed.
6. A sensation supposed to be produced by the irritation of an efferent or motor nerve: but the existence of the phenomenon is denied.
7. n. Reflection; an image produced by reflection.
8. n. A mere copy; an adapted form: as, a Middle Latin reflex of an Old French word.
9. n. 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.
10. n. Same as reflex action (which see, under reflex, a.).

Wiktionary

1. n. An automatic response to a simple stimulus which does not require mental processing.
2. n. linguistics A corresponding phoneme in a daughter language.
3. adj. Bent, turned back or reflected.
4. adj. Produced automatically by a stimulus.
5. adj. geometry Having greater than 180 degrees but less than 360 degrees.
6. v. to bend, turn back or reflect
7. v. to respond to a stimulus

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Directed back; attended by reflection; retroactive; introspective.
2. adj. Produced in reaction, in resistance, or in return.
3. adj. (Physiol.) Of, pertaining to, or produced by, stimulus or excitation without the necessary intervention of consciousness.
4. n. Reflection; the light reflected from an illuminated surface to one in shade.
5. n. (Physiol.) An involuntary movement produced by reflex action.
6. v. obsolete To reflect.
7. v. To bend back; to turn back.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus
2. adj. without volition or conscious control