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  reform school refracting telescope  
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   The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000.
 
refract
 
SYLLABICATION:re·fract
PRONUNCIATION:  r-frkt
TRANSITIVE VERB:Inflected forms: re·fract·ed, re·fract·ing, re·fracts
1. To deflect (light, for example) from a straight path by refraction. 2. To alter by viewing through a medium: “In the Quartet reality is refracted through a variety of eyes” (Elizabeth Kastor). 3. Medicine To determine the refraction of (an eye, for example).
ETYMOLOGY:Latin refringere, refrct-, to break up : re-, re- + frangere, to break; see bhreg- in Appendix I.
 
 
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · ILLUSTRATIONS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  reform school refracting telescope  
 
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