Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In bacteriology, applied to colonies which are of a translucent, grayish-white color with a pearly luster.
- Consisting of, resembling, or pertaining to nacre or mother-of-pearl: as, a nacreous luster; a nacreous layer.
- Producing or possessing nacre, as shells which have a certain luster or lustrous layer on their inner surface.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Zoöl.) Consisting of, or resembling, nacre; pearly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of, or resembling
nacre (mother of pearl ). - adjective Exhibiting
lustrous orrainbow -likecolors .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective consisting of or resembling mother-of-pearl
- adjective having a play of lustrous rainbow colors
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Unofficial Neal Asher drinking game: take a shot whenever he uses the words "nacreous" or "actinic."
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I am worth more, for it is I who bring them forth, sing them forth - luminous nacreous spheres tumbling forth, scattering on the ground.
Valentines, part the first mllelaurel 2009
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That same wind sundered the clouds to reveal a swollen, pocked moon, and a shaft of nacreous moonglow doused the ground before my feet.
Shadow Walker Ricardo Federico 2011
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There are other ways you can “get nacreous,” however, and thereby jump start the creative process and become the world-famous writer you've always wanted to be.
Writer's Block? Get Nacreous! Con Chapman 2011
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Her legs were encased in a sickly green, nacreous material that was solid from the knees down, breaking apart into a delicate lace patterning over her thighs and waist.
Crimson Wind Diana Pharaoh Francis 2011
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If, despite having your pencils lined up and a fresh piece of paper in your typewriter, or a cool white computer screen in front of you, you find yourself unable to write, it may be because you're not nacreous enough.
Writer's Block? Get Nacreous! Con Chapman 2011
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As if to correct the one or the other, he thrust his tongue into the nacreous coils of her ear, smothering all the while her breasts with his hands, lest their rocking motion somehow interfere with the process of correction.
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In places the shale had flaked away giving the tower a mottled appearance; black nacreous scales littered the base of the walls and gleamed among the grasses.
She Closed Her Eyes 2010
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The parking lot is full, the grass is covered with cars, there are even cars out on the street, everywhere there are cars, and in each car are people sheened with sweat, going nacreous as onions fried in butter; I can see through their clammy melting skin to the dry dusty dust of their bones.
Wine Poetry 2008
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The parking lot is full, the grass is covered with cars, there are even cars out on the street, everywhere there are cars, and in each car are people sheened with sweat, going nacreous as onions fried in butter; I can see through their clammy melting skin to the dry dusty dust of their bones.
chained_bear commented on the word nacreous
"Standing there he saw the sun go down, the sky turn nacreous so that the roofs beyond the court took on the sharpness of a silhouette: the pallor deepened to an exquisite violet; the outlines vanished, lights appeared..." --Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate, 366
February 9, 2008
jessielauren commented on the word nacreous
Lolita - We ( mother, Haze, Dolores and I) were to go to our Glass Lake this afternoon, and bathe, and bask, a nacreous morn degenerated at noon into rain, and Lo made a scene.
January 27, 2010