sapphirine

American  

[saf-er-in, -uh-reen, -uh-rahyn] / ˈsæf ər ɪn, -əˌrin, -əˌraɪn /

adjective

1. consisting of sapphire; like sapphire, especially in color.

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noun

1. a pale-blue or greenish, usually granular mineral, a silicate of magnesium and aluminum.

2. a blue variety of spinel.

sapphirine British  

/ ˈsæfəˌriːn, -rɪn /

noun

1. a rare blue or bluish-green mineral that consists of magnesium aluminium silicate in monoclinic crystalline form and occurs as small grains in some metamorphic rocks

2. a blue variety of spinel

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adjective

1. relating to or resembling sapphire

Etymology

Origin of sapphirine

1375–1425; late Middle English saphyryn (< Old French ) ≪ Greek sappheírinos like lapis lazuli ( see sapphire, -ine ¹); sapphirine ( def. 2 ) < German Saphirin ≪ Greek, as above

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sapphirine

Ghosts—ghosts—the sapphirine air Teems with them even to the gleaming ends Of the wild day-spring! 

From The Song of the Sword and Other Verses by Henley, William Ernest

Now coasts with capes and ribboned beaches Set silent 'neath the canopy sapphirine, And estuaries and river reaches Phantasmal silver in the night's soft shine.

From The Three Hills And other Poems by Baudelaire, Charles

Then, noticing the expression of the dog who beholds his master with which her sapphirine eyes regarded him, he dropped his hand on hers.

From The House of Mystery An Episode in the Career of Rosalie Le Grange, Clairvoyant by Irwin, Will

Her sapphirine eyes searched the Berkshire hills again, "Something bigger and nobler—something which meant the entire sacrifice of self."

From The House of Mystery An Episode in the Career of Rosalie Le Grange, Clairvoyant by Irwin, Will

Whatever there was in the bit of sapphirine blue, it had life.

From The Blind Spot by Hall, Austin