a. [f. L. translūcēnt-em, pres. pple. of translūcēre to shine through: see TRANSLUCE, and cf. TRALUCENT.]
† 1. That shines through; emitting penetrating rays. b. In quot. a. 1652, thoroughly illuminated or luminous. Obs. rare.
1596. Fitz-Geffray, Sir F. Drake (1881), 97. The sunne, That latelie bright translucent splendour shed.
a. 1652. A. Wilson, Jas. I. (1653), 61. She had a translucent passage in the night, through the City of London, by multitudes of Torches.
1791. J. Learmont, Poems, 359. The Sun translucent from on high With locks of waving gold salutes the sky.
2. Through which light passes: = TRANSPARENT.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 153. The eye of man is translucent, and containeth in it a horny substance.
1634. Milton, Comus, 861. Sabrina fair,… sitting Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave.
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 180. Replenish’d from the cool, translucent springs.
1847. Lewes, Hist. Philos. (1867), I. 326. Water, air, and other bodies which are translucent.
fig. 1891. Swinburne, Stud. Pr. & Poetry, Jrnl. Sir W. Scott (1894), 23. The translucent treachery of such an impious imposture.
b. Now, more distinctively: Allowing the passage of light, yet diffusing it so as not to render bodies lying beyond clearly visible; semi-transparent.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 120. A pane of thin translucent horn.
1846. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces, 29. The glass ceases to be transparent, though remaining translucent.
1851. Woodward, Mollusca, I. 66. The shell of the argonaut is thin and translucent.
1905. in Westm. Gaz., 17 March, 12/1. The windows of this classroom were once transparent, they are now translucent, and if not cleaned very soon will be opaque.
fig. 1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. ii. The old centuries melt from opaque to partially translucent, transparent here and there.
Hence Translucently adv., in a translucent manner or state; so as to be seen through.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., I. i. So translucently pure and soft was her complexion.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 82. The skin … is translucently pale and shines like a mirror.
