Crŷs'tal-line1, a.
(Synop., § 130), a. [Lat. crystallinus, Gr. κρυστάλλινος, Fr. & Pr. cristallin, It., Sp., & Pg. cristallino. See CRYSTAL.]
Sense 1. Consisting of crystal. “Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline.” Shak.
Sense 2. Having a texture produced by crystallization; as, granite is crystalline. Dana.
Sense 3. Imperfectly crystallized; as, granite is only crystalline, while quartz crystal is perfectly crystallized. Dana.
Sense 4. Resembling crystal; pure; clear; transparent; pellucid.
He on the wings of cherub rode sublime On the crystalline sky. Milton.
Crystalline heavens, or crystalline spheres, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavenly bodies. — Crystalline humor, or crystalline lens, a pellucid body having the form of a convex lens, composed of a white, transparent, firm substance, inclosed in a membranous capsule, and situated in a depression in the anterior part of the vitreous humor of the eye. It brings the light admitted to the eye to a focus on the retina, so that images are distinctly seen.