Etymology From Middle French lustre, from Old Italian lustro, from Old Italian lustrare (“brighten”), from Latin lūstrō (“to purify, to brighten”), from Latin lūstrum (“purification ritual”).
US The ability or condition of shining with reflected light; sheen, gleam, gloss, sparkle, shine, etc.
metallic luster
pearly luster
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the diamond’s luster
And over all the fields themselves did muster, With bils and glayves making a dreadfull luster; That forst at first those knights backe to retyre: As when the wrathfull Boreas doth bluster, Nought may abide the tempest of his yre, Both man and beast doe fly, and succour doe inquyre.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
First Servant: O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left To see some mischief on him. O! [Dies] Cornwall: Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now? Gloucester: All dark and comfortless.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:
Daughters of Beulah! Muses who inspire the Poet’s Song! Record the journey of immortal Milton through your realms Of terror & mild moony lustre, in soft sexual delusions Of varied beauty, to delight the wanderer and repose His burning thirst & freezing hunger! […]1810, William Blake, Milton: A Poem in Two Books, Book I, 1-5:
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Geography, Geology, Natural sciencesUS The way in which the surface of any particular type of mineral reflects light differently from other minerals, which is helpful in telling minerals apart.
By the luster or glance of a mineral is meant the quantity and quality of light reflected by it, as determined by the character or minute structure of its surface. […] The two principal kinds of luster are the metallic and non-metallic. […] The adamantine luster is intermediate between the metallic and non-metallic lusters. […] The vitreous is the luster of glass, and of all minerals similar to glass in appearance, such as quartz, calcite, etc. The resinous luster is seen in resins, of which the native mineral copalite is an example; it is also well exhibited in sulphur and sphalerite. The pearly luster, i.e., the luster of pearl, is well shown only in minerals having a foliated or scaly structure, in other words, very perfect cleavage in one direction, such as talc, mica, and gypsum. The silky or satiny luster, like the pearly, is determined by the structure, being observed only in finely fibrous minerals. […] The greasy and waxy lusters are most common in certain amorphous minerals, such as serpentine.1895, William Otis Crosby, Tables for the Determination of Common Minerals Chiefly by Their Physical Properties: With Confirmatory Chemical Tests, page 11:
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US, Figuratively Shining light from within, luminosity, brightness, shine.
the sun’s luster
the luster of the minor stars
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[…] abashed the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is, and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely, saw, and pined His loss; but chiefly to find here observed His lustre visibly impaired; yet seemed Undaunted. […]1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 846-850:
1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses Book III, The Story of Cadmus, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10587/pg10587-images.html The scorching sun was mounted high, / In all its lustre, to the noonday sky.
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US, Figuratively Shining beauty, splendor, attractiveness or attraction.
How does the Luſtre of our Father’s Actions, Through the dark Cloud of Ills that cover him, Break out, and burn with more triumphant Brightneſs!1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:
After so many years in the same field, the job had lost its luster.
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When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world...1730, James Thomson, “Autumn”, in Seasons, section 186:
Thus err the many, who, entranced to find Unwonted lustre in some clearer mind, Believe that Genius sets the laws at naught Which chain the pinions of our wildest thought;1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, in The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes in Two Volumes: Volume I, Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, published 1892, page 37:
1970, S.Y. Agnon, "Agunot" in Twenty-One Stories, New York: Schocken Books, p. 30, Their days of rest are wrested from them, their feasts are fasts, their lot is dust instead of luster.
After the scandal, the idol lost his luster and could only get work in Vegas.
[…] whose ancestors, says Clarendon, had been transported out of Normandy with the Conqueror, "and had continued," says Sir Henry Wotton, "about the space of four hundred years, rather without obscurity than with any great lustre […]".1895, The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 279, page 602:
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But Main, High, and Central have no past; rather, their past is now. It is not the fault of the inhabitants that nothing has gone before them. Nor are they to be condemned if they make their spinal streets conspicuous, and confer egregious lustre and false acclaim on Central, High, or Main, and erect minarets and marquees indeed as though their city were already in dream and fable.1971, Cynthia Ozick, “The Butterfly and the Traffic Light”, in Collected Stories, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, published 2006, page 288:
The notion of two homosexuals living together more or less openly did not sit well with their neighbors, or even their friends, but Millthorpe took on a kind of symbolic luster as a kind of homosexual paradise.2006, Florence Tamagne, A History of Homosexuality in Europe, Volume I & II: Berlin, London, Paris, 1919-1939, New York: Algora, page 87:
Where else then, Denmark? Its misgivings about immigration have smudged some of the liberal lustre it once had.2023 February 11, Janan Ganesh, “After Germany’s fall, which is the paragon nation?”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22:
US A piece of glass added to a light (especially a chandelier) to increase its luster.
Each mortal has his pleasure: none deny Scarsdale his bottle, Darty his ham-pie; Ridotta sips and dances, till she see The doubling lustres dance as fast as she;1735, Alexander Pope, The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace Imitated, 45-48:
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US An ornamental light providing luster, especially a chandelier.
The immense room was carpeted, the walls were covered with eighteenth-century panelling, and three electric lustres hung from the ceiling.1905, Thomas Mann, “The Blood of the Walsungs”, in H.T. Lowe-Porter, transl., Death in Venice & Seven Other Stories, New York: Vintage, published 1954, page 294:
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US A substance that imparts luster to a surface, such as polish, gloss, plumbago, glaze, etc.
Gabriel coloured as if he felt he had made a mistake and, without looking at her, kicked off his goloshes and flicked actively with his muffler at his patent-leather shoes. […] When he had flicked lustre into his shoes he stood up and pulled his waistcoat down more tightly on his plump body.1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, pages 219–220:
Chinese themes are equally recognisable in the star-shaped and hexagonal tiles with either moulded relief or lustre-painted decoration, sometimes surrounded by an inscription border […]2009, Yuka Kadoi, Islamic Chinoiserie: The Art of Mongol Iran, Edinburgh University Press, page 52:
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US The layer of an object that imparts luster, chiefly with regard to ceramics.
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US, Abbreviation, Clipping Clipping of lusterware: highly lustrous ceramics.
The whole place was covered with fragments of pottery, mostly very rough, and difficult to identify as to date. Two small lustre shards belong to the ninth or tenth century and a green glaze resembles the output of the kilns found by Sir Aurel Stein on the coast of Makran.1936, Freya Stark, chapter XXIII, in The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut, Boston: E.P. Dutton, page 253:
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US A kind of lustrous fabric with a wool weft and cotton, linen, or silk warp, chiefly used for women's dresses.
Mrs. McLash was dressed for travelling. She wore a black lustre skirt that just exposed her broken button-boots […]1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 143:
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US, Obsolete A glory, an act or thing that imparts fame or renown.
Etymology From Middle French lustre, from Old Italian lustro, from Old Italian lustrare (“brighten”), from Latin lūstrō (“to purify, to brighten”), from Latin lūstrum (“purification ritual”).
US, Obsolete To make illustrious or attractive, to distinguish.
Our Puritans have from hence learned to colour and lustre their ugly Treasons... with the cloake of Religion.1644, John Maxwell, Sacro-Sancta Regum Majestas, page 17:
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US To coat with a lustrous material or glaze, to impart physical luster to an object.
Peter and Mania found a pensione whose view was of chestnut woods and a horizon looped by peaks lustred with last winter’s snow, distant in time as well as space.1985, Nadine Gordimer, “Sins of the Third Age”, in Something Out There, Penguin, page 69:
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US, Obsolete To shed light on, to illustrate, to show.
› Synonym of lustrate, particularly
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US, Obsolete Synonym of purify, to ritually cleanse or renew.
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US, Obsolete Synonym of look, to look over, to survey.
US, Archaic One who lusts, one inflamed with lust.
Eumenides But did neuer any Louers come hether?1591, John Lyly, Endimion, sig. E4v
...a luster after power...1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, volume III, page 124:
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1867–1872, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Testimonies against the Jews Neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor the lusters after mankind […] shall obtain the kingdom of God.
luster
noun
Etymology From Latin lustra (“wilds, woods”).
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US, Obsolete Synonym of den: a dwelling-place in a wilderness, especially for animals.
...But, turning to his luster, Calues and Dam, He shewes abhorr'd death, in his angers flame...c. 1615, Homer, translated by George Chapman, Odysses, 2nd edition, page 159: