Reflex word meaning and definition

[noun] an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus

\Re"flex\ (r?"fl?ks), a. [L. reflexus, p. p. of reflectere: cf. F. r['e]flexe. See {Reflect}.] 1. Directed back; attended by reflection; retroactive; introspective. The reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions. --Sir M. Hale. 2. Produced in reaction, in resistance, or in return. 3. (Physiol.) Of, pertaining to, or produced by, stimulus or excitation without the necessary intervention of consciousness. {Reflex action} (Physiol.), any action performed involuntarily in consequence of an impulse or impression transmitted along afferent nerves to a nerve center, from which it is reflected to an efferent nerve, and so calls into action certain muscles, organs, or cells. {Reflex nerve} (Physiol.), an excito-motory nerve. See {Exito-motory}.
\Re"flex\ (r?"fl?ks; formerly r?*fl?ks"), n. [L. reflexus a bending back. See {Reflect}.] 1. Reflection; the light reflected from an illuminated surface to one in shade. Yon gray is not the morning's eye, 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow. --Shak. On the depths of death there swims The reflex of a human face. --Tennyson. 2. (Physiol.) An involuntary movement produced by reflex action. {Patellar reflex}. See {Knee jerk}, under {Knee}.
\Re*flex"\ (r?*fl?ks"), v. t. [L. reflexus, p. p. of reflectere. See {Reflect}.] 1. To reflect. [Obs.] --Shak. 2. To bend back; to turn back. --J. Gregory.

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