Verb

(en verb)

To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.

*

The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson

, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}

(obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.

(obsolete) To unfold or make visible.

* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)

The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.

Verb

(en verb)

To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface.

A mirror reflects the light that shines on it.

To be bent back (light, etc.) from a surface.

The moonlight reflected from the surface of water.

To mirror, or show the image of something.

The shop window reflected his image as he walked past.

To be mirrored.

His image reflected from the shop window as he walked past.

To agree with; to closely follow.

Entries in English dictionaries aim to reflect common usage.

To give evidence of someone's or something's character etc.

The team's victory reflects the Captain's abilities.

The teacher's ability reflects well on the school.

*

With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get

(senseid) To think seriously; to ponder or consider.

People do that sort of thing every day, without ever stopping to reflect on the consequences.

* 1985 , , Option Lock , page 229:

Not for the first time, he reflected that it was not so much the speeches that strained the nerves as the palaver that went with them.