opalineadj.n.

1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall iii. 34 Whether the opaline stone in this urn were burnt upon the finger of the dead, or cast into the fire.., it will consist with either custom.

1784 J. King Cook's Voy. Pacific III. iii. xiii. 257 Assuming various tints of blue, from a pale sapphirine, to a deep violet colour; which were frequently mixed with a ruby, or opaline redness.

1831 R. Knox tr. H. Cloquet Syst. Human Anat. (ed. 2) 626 By boiling, they lose their transparency, and acquire an opaque opaline tint.

1889 Harper's Mag. July 192/1 The warm glow vanishes entirely, and a strange milky, opaline, and iridescent whiteness suffuses the sky.

1920 S. Lewis Main St. i. 8 She saw the palms as a jungle, the pink-shaded electric globes as an opaline haze.

1962 C. Frondel Dana's Syst. Mineral. (ed. 7) III. 296 Common opal. In general, opal without a play of colour... Includes..rock-forming opaline silica.

1993 J. Meades Pompey (1994) 390 A siren with opaline earrings to her clavicle.

1897 T. H. Huxley Disc. Biol. & Geol. ii. 74 The silex, in fact, undergoes solution and slow redeposition, until..the excessively fine-grained sand, each particle of which is a skeleton, becomes converted into a dense opaline stone, with only here and there an indication of an organism.

1934 Science 27 July 95 Overlying the..sediments is..cross-bedded, tuffaceous sandstone, usually with opaline cement.

1967 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 54 842/1 Chalky tabaschir was richly crystalline and showed very few traces of amorphous opaline rings.

1998 L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) ii. 187/1 Both polycystines and phaeodarians often have strikingly beautiful opaline skeletons made of hydrated amorphous silica; they are extremely common in tropical waters.

1939 Trade Marks Jrnl. 1 Feb. 147/1 Opal and opaline glass.

1977 Times 30 July 10/6 Opaline beakers with golden initials.

1990 Antique Collector May 41 (caption) The back panel is unusual in having the central opaline panel surrounded by a contrasting dark blue panel, both guillochée enamel.

1861 C. W. King Antique Gems i. 8 When the stone [sc. Calcedony] has a bright tinge of yellow, it is named the Opaline.

1874 H. M. Westropp Man. Precious Stones & Antique Gems 43 Opaline is a term sometimes applied to a variety of yellow chalcedony which presents an opaline semi-opacity.

1972 Gloss. Geol. (Amer. Geol. Inst.) 495/1 Opaline, any of several minerals related to or resembling opal; e.g. a pale-blue to bluish-white opalescent or girasol corundum.

2001 Environmental Geol. 40 869–83 The transformation of the amorphous Fe phases to more stable phases was hindered by..amorphous opaline produced from rice roots.

1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems lxiii. 88 When he saw the sexless Attis by the seas' level opaline.

1893 R. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. v. 33 In some places the pool was covered with a strange opaline.

1922 K. Tynan Golden Evening in Evensong 29 See the head's majestic shape. Streaked with the gold and opaline.

1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1561/1 Opaline, a semi-translucent glass, also known as fusible porcelain or milk-glass.

1964 Harper's Bazaar Nov. 99 The make-up mirror..in black opaline and ormolu, £27.

1970 G. Savage Dict. Antiques 296/1 The manufacture of opaline was at its most popular between 1840 and 1870, after which it declined in popularity.

1989 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 961/1 Purple opaline was made in small quantity around 1828 at the Paris factory of Bercy.