In zoology, ill-defined; without definite edges: applied to colored marks when they appear to merge gradually into the ground-color at their edges, and especially to marks on the wings of butterflies and moths when the scales forming them become scattered at the edges.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
verb Simple past tense and past participle of diffuse.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
adjective (of light rays) subjected to scattering by reflection from a rough surface or transmission through a translucent material
adjective (of light) transmitted from a broad light source or reflected
Etymologies
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Examples
It was an exquisite room, possibly thirty-five by sixty and rising to a lofty trussed ceiling where a warm golden light was diffused from a skylight of yellow glass.
He played with the melancholy which the phrase diffused, he felt it stealing over him, but like a caress which only deepened and sweetened his sense of his own happiness.
So diffused is present day public ownership of stocks and bonds that the direction and control of corporations lies in non-ownership hands, - i.e., management.
It was an exquisite room, possibly thirty-five by sixty and rising to a lofty trussed ceiling where a warm golden light was diffused from a skylight of yellow glass.
He played with the melancholy which the phrase diffused, he felt it stealing over him, but like a caress which only deepened and sweetened his sense of his own happiness.
What we call diffused light on Earth, the grateful result of refraction, the luminous matter held in suspension by the air, the mother of our dawns and our dusks, of our blushing mornings and our dewy eyes, of our shades, our penumbras, our tints and all the other magical effects of _chiaro-oscuro_ -- this diffused light has absolutely no existence on the surface of the Moon.
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