luster

noun

1. (US, countable, uncountable)The ability or condition of shining with reflected light; sheen, gleam, gloss, sparkle, shine, etc.

   “metallic luster”

   “pearly luster”

   “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.”

   “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.”

2. (US, countable, uncountable)The ability or condition of shining with reflected light; sheen, gleam, gloss, sparkle, shine, etc.
3. (US, countable, figuratively, uncountable)Shining light from within, luminosity, brightness, shine.

   “the sun’s luster”

   “the luster of the minor stars”

   “[…] 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. […]”

   “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.”

4. (US, countable, figuratively, uncountable)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!”

   “After so many years in the same field, the job had lost its luster.”

   “When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world...”

   “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;”

   “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.”

5. (US, countable, figuratively, uncountable)Shining fame, renown, glory.

   “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 […]".”

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “Where else then, Denmark? Its misgivings about immigration have smudged some of the liberal lustre it once had.”

6. (US, countable, figuratively, uncountable)Polish, social refinement.

   “Sure, the posh git spoke with fine lustre. ’S all a load of bollocks, though, innit?”

7. (US, countable, literary, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly
8. (US, countable, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly

   “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;”

9. (US, countable, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly

   “The immense room was carpeted, the walls were covered with eighteenth-century panelling, and three electric lustres hung from the ceiling.”

10. (US, countable, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly

    “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.”

    “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 […]”

11. (US, countable, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly
12. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly

    “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.”

13. (US, countable, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly

    “Mrs. McLash was dressed for travelling. She wore a black lustre skirt that just exposed her broken button-boots […]”

14. (US, countable, obsolete, uncountable)A thing exhibiting luster, particularly
15. (US, alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of lustrum: A five-year period, especially (historical) in Roman contexts.

    “...thritty yere of vj. lustres...”

    “Mesue and some other Arabians began to reject and reprehend it; upon whose authority, for many following lusters, it was much debased and quite out of request […].”

16. (US, archaic)One who lusts, one inflamed with lust.

    “Eumenides But did neuer any Louers come hether?”

    “...a luster after power...”

    “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.”

17. (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...”

verb

1. (US, archaic, intransitive)To have luster, to gleam, to shine.

   “What bloom, what brightness lusters o’er her cheeks!”

2. (US, archaic, intransitive)To gain luster, to become lustrous.
3. (US, obsolete, transitive)To give luster, particularly

   “Our Puritans have from hence learned to colour and lustre their ugly Treasons... with the cloake of Religion.”

4. (US, transitive)To give luster, particularly

   “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.”

5. (US, obsolete, transitive)To shed light on, to illustrate, to show.
6. (US, obsolete, transitive)Synonym of lustrate, particularly
7. (US, obsolete, transitive)Synonym of lustrate, particularly

name

1. A surname from German.