reflex

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
reflex
    adj 1: without volition or conscious control; "the automatic
           shrinking of the pupils of the eye in strong light"; "a
           reflex knee jerk"; "sneezing is reflexive" [syn:
           {automatic}, {reflex(a)}, {reflexive}]
    n 1: an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus
         [syn: {reflex}, {reflex response}, {reflex action},
         {instinctive reflex}, {innate reflex}, {inborn reflex},
         {unconditioned reflex}, {physiological reaction}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Reflex \Re*flex"\ (r?*fl?ks"), v. t. [L. reflexus, p. p. of
   reflectere. See {Reflect}.]
   1. To reflect. [Obs.] --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To bend back; to turn back. --J. Gregory.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Reflex \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.
      [1913 Webster]

            The reflex act of the soul, or the turning of the
            intellectual eye inward upon its own actions. --Sir
                                                  M. Hale.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Produced in reaction, in resistance, or in return.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Physiol.) Of, pertaining to, or produced by, stimulus or
      excitation without the necessary intervention of
      consciousness.
      [1913 Webster]

   {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}.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Reflex \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.
      [1913 Webster]

            Yon gray is not the morning's eye,
            'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            On the depths of death there swims
            The reflex of a human face.           --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Physiol.) An involuntary movement produced by reflex
      action.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Patellar reflex}. See {Knee jerk}, under {Knee}.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
150 Moby Thesaurus words for "reflex":
      Pavlovian conditioning, action and reaction, adumbration, answer,
      antiphonal, arch, automatic, automatic reaction,
      automatic response, autonomic reaction, back, backlash, backward,
      backwash, behavior, bend, bend back, blind, blind impulse,
      bounceback, bow, brain wave, brainstorm, casual, clout, compulsive,
      conditioned, conditioned response, conditioning, counter, crook,
      curl, curve, decurve, deflect, dome, drive, echo, embow, fancy,
      flash, fleeting impulse, flex, force, forced, gut, gut response,
      hook, hump, hunch, ill-advised, ill-considered, ill-devised,
      impact, impress, impression, imprint, impulse, impulsive,
      inadvertent, incurvate, incurve, indeliberate, inflect,
      inspiration, instinct, instinctive, instrumental conditioning,
      involuntary, involuntary impulse, loop, mark, mechanical,
      natural impulse, negative reinforcement, notion,
      operant conditioning, outline, positive reinforcement,
      predictable response, print, psychagogy, quick hunch, reacting,
      reaction, reactionary, reactive, recoil, recurve, reeducation,
      reflect, reflection, reflex action, reflexive, refluence, refluent,
      reflux, reinforcement, reorientation, repercussion, reply,
      respondence, respondent, responding, response, responsive,
      retroaction, retroactionary, retroactive, retroflex, return,
      reverberation, reversed, revulsion, revulsive, rise, round, sag,
      shadow, silhouette, snap, spontaneous, sudden thought, swag, sweep,
      turn, turned around, unadvised, uncalculated, unconditioned reflex,
      unconscious, unconsidered, undeliberate, undeliberated, undesigned,
      unintended, unintentional, unmeditated, unpremeditated, unstudied,
      unthinking, unthinking response, unwilled, unwilling, unwitting,
      urge, vault, wind, wrong-way, wrong-way around

    

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