lustre

«lustre» in Mova's school dictionary: a soft, shining glow on a surface, like the shine on… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (lustre — uncountable; US spelling: luster)

meaning for a pupil

1) Lustre is a soft, shining glow on a surface, like the shine on pearls, silk, metal or healthy hair. tree →

2) Lustre is the special quality or fame that makes something seem bright and admired. tree →

3) (science) Lustre is how a mineral reflects light: metallic, glassy, pearly, dull. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons on rocks and metals, lustre is one way to identify minerals: gold has a metallic lustre, quartz a glassy one. In everyday life polishing brings back lustre. In stories «the event lost its lustre» means it became less exciting. Phrases: «metallic lustre», «lose its lustre», «add lustre to».

examples

• The pearl had a beautiful soft lustre. tree →
• Gold keeps its lustre for thousands of years. tree →
• Polishing the old spoon brought back its lustre. tree →
• We sorted the minerals by lustre: metallic or non-metallic. tree →
• Her hair had a healthy lustre. tree →
• After a week, the new game lost its lustre. tree →
• If it sparkles as brightly as ever go straight on, but if its lustre is dimmed choose another path.’ tree →

note

UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand: «lustre»; USA: «luster». Adjective «lustrous» (shiny). Uncountable.

In the corpora

• Geologists identify minerals by hardness, colour, lustre (shine), streak and how they break.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «lustre» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.