refract

/rɪˈfrækt/

Other forms: refracted; refracting; refracts

Things that refract light — like lenses and prisms — bend it. If you've looked through a water droplet on a car windshield, you've seen water refract light.

You're most likely to come across the verb refract when you're studying physics and the properties of light waves. We come across examples of this everyday, though — when you study a straw in a glass of water, you see the water refract light in a way that makes the straw look bent or jagged. A rainbow also happens when raindrops refract light, breaking it into its component colors. In Latin, refract means "broken up."

Definitions of refract

1. verb

   subject to refraction
   “refract a light beam”

   type of:

   subject

   cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable to
2. verb

   determine the refracting power of (a lens)
   type of:

   ascertain, determine, find, find out

   establish after a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study