phosphorescentadj.n.

1767 Philos. Trans. 1766 (Royal Soc.) 56 39 It detonates with small phosphorescent sparks.

1791 E. Darwin Bot. Garden: Pt. I i. (note) The Bolognian stone..has been long celebrated for its phosphorescent quality.

1816 R. Jameson Treat. External Characters Minerals (ed. 2) 303 Fluor-spar, when heated, becomes phosphorescent.

1852 I. Taylor Restoration of Belief (1855) i. 19 A man sits surrounded with the books of all ages; among these he has passed the best years of his life..the books are phosphorescent in the view of their possessor.

1881 Nature 13 Oct. 571/1 Certain parts of the interior surface of the tube become luminous with phosphorescent light.

1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xliv. 874 Natural crystals of blende are phosphorescent.

1943 T. W. Lawson Thirty Seconds over Tokyo vii. 105 The village gave off an unearthly, phosphorescent glow.

2002 J. Cohen & I. Stewart Evolving Alien ix. 192 Little angler-fishes with lit-up lures on their foreheads, phosphorescent shrimps, and pteropod sea-snails.

1789 C. R. Hopson Gen. Syst. Chem. iii. ii. 608 The Bolognian Phosphorus is, as it were, the origin and head of the whole family of Phosphorescents.

1863 E. Atkinson tr. A. Ganot Elem. Treat. Physics vii. vii. 465 The best phosphorescents are..diamonds..fluorspar [etc.].

1984 M. Bradley World Wreckers 46 The death of the forest means no resin or phosphorescents for light, no fruits for wine.

2000 Sunday Times 23 July (Travel section) 2/3 Best moments: swimming with phosphorescents at Koh Pha-Ngan, Thailand.

1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) i. 1 The buttons sparkled phosphorescently in the feeble rays.

1978 A. Maupin Tales of City 201 When DeDe caught his eye, he smiled phosphorescently and pushed his way through the crowd to her side.

1998 C. Channer Waiting in Vain (1999) v. 139 He was an idealist. A romantic. If he weren't so phosphorescently intelligent she'd be inclined to say naïve.