a. [f. prec. + -AL 1.]
1. Of or pertaining to the dawn, eastern; fig. of or pertaining to the rise or first period of anything.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, Prol. 148. Quhose donke impurpurit vestiment nocturnall … He [Phebus] lefte in tyll his regioun aurorall.
1854. Badham, Halieut., 529. To have begun the day with a … crust … like the French auroral ‘biscuit de Rheims.’
1878. P. Bayne, Purit. Rev., ix. 361. Auroral splendours of promise … which accompany all revolutions in their earlier stages.
1879. J. Todhunter, Alcestis, 61. To paint the auroral mysteries of the dawn.
2. Like the dawn in color, brightness, freshness, soft beauty, etc.; dawning, roseate, rosy.
1827. Carlyle, Misc., I. 41. The auroral light of Tasso.
1863. Longf., Falc. Federigo, 151. Her cheeks suffused with an auroral blush.
1883. R. Noel, in Academy, No. 577. 365/3. A radiance in auroral spirits now.
3. Of or pertaining to the aurora (borealis).
1828. in Webster.
1851–9. Sir J. Herschel, in Adm. Man. Sc. Enq., 161. Note also the meteors … within the auroral region.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxxi. 421. A true and unbroken auroral arch.
1872. Proctor, Ess. Astron., xiii. 179. The extreme height of the auroral light.
4. Resembling the aurora in its coruscations.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 136. Auroral flashings of wit.
1882. Myers, Renew. Youth, 222. Hast thou … Marked in her eyes those gleams auroral play?
