a. Also 5 luminos(e, lumynouse. [ad. L. lūminōs-us, f. lūmin-, lūmen light. Cf. F. lumineux.]
1. Full of light; emitting or casting light; shining, bright. occas. jocular = shiny.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 113. The frute of oliues is vnctuous, luminose, and delicious.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., Pref. in Ashm., Theatr. Chem. Brit. (1652), 121. Whose Luminos Bemes obtundyth our speculation.
1630. Tinker of Turvey, 55. His eyes were luminous, Chrystalline and beauteous.
1792. Mar. Riddell, Voy. Madeira, 20. The phaenomenon of the luminous sea, well known to naturalists.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, 147. As the night thickened the huge fires became more and more luminous.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1191. In circumpolarization it [sugar] bends the luminous rays to the right.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, i. § 11. (1870), 11. Here are two quartz-pebbles: I have only to rub them together to make them luminous.
1900. Blackw. Mag., July, 58/2. The maples and birches … shone with a strange luminous beauty.
b. Of a room: Well lighted.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Tri., II. xxx. Their sunny Tents and houses luminous.
1624. Wotton, Elem. Archit., I. 55. Our Master … seems to haue beene an extreame Louer of Luminous Roomes.
1775. Johnson, Tour West. Isl. Scot., 10. The library … is elegant and luminous.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 21 Sept. an. 1777. The church of Ashbourne, which is one of the largest and most luminous that I have seen in any town of the same size.
c. Applied to animals or plants which emit light.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., ii. (1879), 30. The rings in one instance retained their luminous property nearly twenty-four hours after the death of the insect.
1851–6. Woodward, Mollusca, 30. Some of the cuttle-fishes are slightly luminous.
1900. Nature, 12 July, 264/2. Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist exhibited … four fishes showing luminous organs.
2. transf. and fig.; said esp. of writers, expressions, literary treatment, etc.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun, 1261. This virgine fulle of splendour and thorgh out lumynouse.
1618. Bolton, Florus, To Rdr. (1636), A 7. Whose writings are altogether as luminous, as acuminous.
1787. Sheridan, in Sheridaniana, 98. If you … read the luminous page of Gibbon.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 397. The solid and luminous theory of Lavoisier and La Place.
1809. Knox & Jebb, Corr., I. 559. When I say that Watts was not luminous, I mean strictly to distinguish that word from lucid; for this I think he was.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxv. IV. 447. His State papers … are models of terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence.
1881. G. Allen, Vignettes fr. Nat., xxii. 222. Mr. Wallace’s luminous researches on the geographical distribution of animals.
