sapphirine
Americanadjective
noun
-
a pale-blue or greenish, usually granular mineral, a silicate of magnesium and aluminum.
-
a blue variety of spinel.
noun
-
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
-
a blue variety of spinel
adjective
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.