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

He flashes out emeralds and rubies, amethystine flames and sapphirine colours, in a manner quite marvellous to behold, and this is only one star! 

From Two on a Tower by Hardy, Thomas

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

He would have taken her hand on this, but the grave, direct gaze of her sapphirine eyes restrained him.

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

Outside even in Oxford Street the air was full of summer, and the cool people sauntering under the sapphirine sky were as welcome to his vision as if he had waked from a fever.

From Sinister Street, vol. 2 by MacKenzie, Compton

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

From Poems by Henley, William Ernest