Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having a changeable luster.
- noun A chatoyant stone or gemstone, such as the cat's-eye.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Changing in luster or color, like a cat's eye in the dark.
- noun A kind of hard stone or gem having when cut and polished a chatoyant luster; cat′ s-eye.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A hard stone, as the
cat's-eye , which presents on a polished surface, and in the interior, an undulating or wary light. - adjective (Min.) Having a changeable, varying luster, or color, like that of a changeable silk, or oa a cat's eye in the dark.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective jewelry Having a certain optical
reflectance effect, which can be likened to the sheen of a spool of silk. - noun mineralogy A hard stone, such as the
cat's-eye , which presents on a polished surface, and in the interior, an undulating or wavy light.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective varying in color when seen in different lights or from different angles
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The varying colors and luster of the stones is called a chatoyant effect, and is due to internal microscopic hollow channels in the stone itself.
Zolar’s Magick Of Color Simon 1994
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The varying colors and luster of the stones is called a chatoyant effect, and is due to internal microscopic hollow channels in the stone itself.
Zolar’s Magick Of Color Simon 1994
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The varying colors and luster of the stones is called a chatoyant effect, and is due to internal microscopic hollow channels in the stone itself.
Zolar’s Magick Of Color Simon 1994
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The varying colors and luster of the stones is called a chatoyant effect, and is due to internal microscopic hollow channels in the stone itself.
Zolar’s Magick Of Color Simon 1994
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Tigers Eye is what they call "chatoyant," - the so called cat's eye effect.
The one, the only, Sabine Stonebender Bettina Tizzy 2008
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Tigers Eye is what they call "chatoyant," - the so called cat's eye effect.
Archive 2008-04-01 Bettina Tizzy 2008
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Another interesting variety of this blue sapphire is one known as "chatoyant"; this has a rapidly changing lustre, which seems to undulate between a green-yellow and a luminous blue, with a phosphorescent glow, or fire, something like that seen in the eyes of a cat in the dark, or the steady, burning glow observed when the cat is fascinating a bird -- hence its name.
The Chemistry, Properties and Tests of Precious Stones John Mastin
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She saw Lucifer, along with the other white winged angels being cast from Heaven: a chatoyant harmony of colors reflected from their extraordinary falling movements until they eventually disappeared into a deep, dark void.
Nell Shea 2010
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Either because they possessed a chatoyant quality of their own (as I had often suspected), or by reason of the light reflected through the open window, the green eyes gleamed upon me vividly like those of a giant cat.
The Devil Doctor Sax Rohmer 1921
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Either because they possessed a chatoyant quality of their own (as I had often suspected), or by reason of the light reflected through the open window, the green eyes gleamed upon me vividly like those of a giant cat.
The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu Sax Rohmer 1921
amcd56 commented on the word chatoyant
I like this word as it relates to fabric.
April 26, 2007
oroboros commented on the word chatoyant
A sort of toned-down version of coruscate.
August 17, 2007
hernesheir commented on the word chatoyant
Let us not overlook the mineralogic/gemology use of the term chatoyant, nor its origin in Fr. chat - cat:
(n): cat's eye
1. Any of various semiprecious gems such as chrysoberyl, BeAl2O4, reflecting a band of light that shifts position as the gem is turned.
2. A glass or plastic reflector designed to glow in the beam of a headlight, used on a vehicle as a safety device or set in rows along a highway as lane markers.
3. A marble having an eye-like design, such as concentric circles or a colored center set in clear glass.
January 1, 2009