Crystalline heavens
(gcide) | Crystalline \Crys"tal*line\ (kr?s"tal-l?n or -l?n; 277), a. [L.
crystallinus, from Gr. ????: cf. F. cristallin. See
Crystal.]
1. Consisting, or made, of crystal.
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Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. --Shak.
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2. Formed by crystallization; like crystal in texture.
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Their crystalline structure. --Whewell.
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3. Imperfectly crystallized; as, granite is only crystalline,
while quartz crystal is perfectly crystallized.
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4. Fig.: Resembling crystal; pure; transparent; pellucid.
"The crystalline sky." --Milton.
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Crystalline heavens, or Crystalline spheres, in the
Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres
imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars
and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens,
which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those
within it), in order to explain certain movements of the
heavenly bodies.
Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the
eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of
rodlike cells derived from the external embryonic
epithelium.
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