the return or regressive motion of a moving body, occasioned by some obstacle which hindered it from pursuing its former direction.

Reflection of the rays of light. See Optics.

Reflection is also used, figuratively, for an operation of the mind; whereby it turns its view backwards as it were upon itself, and makes itself and its own operation the object of its disquisition; and by contemplating the manner, order, and laws which it observes in perceiving ideas, comparing them together, reasoning, &c., it frames new ideas of the relations discovered therein. See Logic, and Metaphysics.

REFLUX of the sea, the ebbing of the water, or its returning from the shore. See Astronomy, p. 473.