1. Throwing back light, heat, etc, as a mirror or other surface.

2. Given to reflection or serious consideration; reflective; contemplative; as, a reflecting mind. Reflecting circle, an astronomical instrument for measuring angless, like the sextant or Hadley's quadrant, by the reflection of light from two plane mirrors which it carries, and differing from the sextant chiefly in having an entire circle. Reflecting galvanometer, a galvanometer in which the deflections of the needle are read by means of a mirror attached to it, which reflects a ray of light or the image of a scale; called also mirror galvanometer. Reflecting goniometer. See Goniometer. Reflecting telescope. See Telescope.

(01 Mar 1998)