refractile

English

Adjective

refractile (comparative more refractile, superlative most refractile)

1. Able to refract, refractive
   • 1884, Various, Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884‎^[1]:

     As the colony increases, the granular character becomes more marked, until it seems to be made up of highly refractile granules, like a mass of particles of glass.

   • 1913, John William Henry Eyre, The Elements of Bacteriological Technique‎^[2]:

     Stained bacilli, when examined with the polarising microscope, often show a doubly refractile cell wall (e. g., B. tuberculosis and B. anthracis).

   • 1997 July 11, Bin Wang, Adam Kuspa, “Dictyostelium Development in the Absence of cAMP”, in Science‎^[3], volume 277, number 5323, →DOI, pages 251–254:

     The number of refractile, ovoid spores was determined by phase-contrast microscopy using a hemocytometer.

   • 2008 August 27, H. Roger Segelken, “Thomas H. Weller, Whose Work on Tissue Led to Nobel Prize, Is Dead at 93”, in New York Times‎^[4]:

     He watched daily through the microscope for characteristic signs of viral infection, and eventually saw what he later described as a “peculiar rounding of scattered cells with refractile bodies in the cytoplasm and nucleus.”