refringentadj.

1654 W. Charleton Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana iii. iv. 196 What are the determinate Ordinations, Positions, and Figures of those Reflectent and Refringent particles in the extreams of Bodies, Diaphanous and Opace, which modifie the Light into this or that species of Colour.

1713 E. Wells Young Gentleman's Mechanicks 89 The Ray AD..is to be conceiv'd to pass forward beyond the refringent Surface BD in a right Line DE or DN.

1779 Philos. Trans. 1778 (Royal Soc.) 68 541 Considering.., that the changes of refringent power and of density are two co-effects of very different nature.

1863 E. Atkinson tr. A. Ganot Elem. Treat. Physics vii. iii. §432 According as the refracted ray approaches, or deviates from the normal, the second medium is said to be more or less refringent or refracting than the first.

1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. xxxvii. 587 The spores..are twice the size of tricophyton spores, and remarkably refringent.

1912 E. A. Minchin Introd. to Study of Protozoa x. 188 The chromatophores of Protozoa contain usually small refringent bodies.

1968 Jrnl. Cell Biol. 39 119 The refringent body..is usually absent by the time the sperm cytoplasm attains a central position in the egg.

1998 Nature 30 July 491 The two daughter cells often remain connected by an intercellular bridge which contains a refringent structure known as the midbody.