a. (and sb.) Obs. [F. chatoyant in same sense, pres. pple. of chatoyer (on L. type caticā-re): cf. flamboyant. Littré gives chatoyer in dial. of Berry, as ‘to stroke or caress as a cat, to pet’]
A. adj. Having a changeable, undulating or floating luster, like that of a cat’s eye in the dark.
1816. P. Cleaveland, Min., 257. This mineral has a crystalline structure. It is slightly chatoyant.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, 38. The ‘Moon-stone’ a variety of pearly adularia presenting chatoyant rays when simply polished.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V. (1887), 79. The … chatoyant … sea of … silks and satins.
B. sb. 1. Chatoyant quality or luster. [So in Fr.]
1798. Phil. Trans., LXXXVIII. 414. The chatoyant or play of light, on these dark crystals, is very remarkable.
2. A chatoyant stone, as the Cat’s eye, the surface and interior of which, when cut and polished, exhibit a floating luster.
