lustre

See also: lustré

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlʌstə/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌstə

Etymology 1

From Middle French lustre. See luster (etymology 1).

Noun

lustre (countable and uncountable, plural lustres)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of luster (shine, etc.)
   • 1838, John Henry Brady, A new pocket guide to London and its environs‎:

     In the centre is painted an eagle, from whose beak an elegant glass lustre chandelier is suspended. There are also ten smaller chandeliers in different parts of the room.

   • 1889, anonymous author, The Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply & Sanitary Improvement‎:

     On the ground floor, the library (a room in carved oak) is lighted by a lustre composed of twelve regenerative burners enclosed in tinted glasses.

   • 2013, Shena Mackay, Redhill Rococo, →ISBN:

     ...he went out through the unfamiliar hall, setting the chandelier clashing its dusty lustres with his hand, leaving a prismatic jangle behind him in the empty house.

   • 2025 July 23, Richard Foster, “Huddersfield's overdue makeover”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 36:

     As TransPennine Express 185130 departs with the 1654 to Manchester Piccadilly, while Northern 150273 waits with the 1712 to Sheffield, it is clear from this vantage point that the Grade 1 listed station has lost some of its lustre. But this is May 23 2023... before work to restore that lustre started.

   Various kinds of minerals differ in their lustre; iron pyrites are described as having a metallic lustre, glassy materials a vitreous lustre; others, such as opal, look resinous, and the lustres of yet others are described as being either pearly, or silky, or dull, like earth.

Antonyms

• dullness
• lacklustre

Derived terms

• delustre
• dislustre
• lustreless
• lustreware
• outlustre

Related terms

• lustrous

Translations

luster — see luster

Verb

lustre (third-person singular simple present lustres, present participle lustring, simple past and past participle lustred)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of luster.

Translations

luster — see luster

Etymology 2

From Middle English lustre, from Latin lustrum, from Old Latin *loustrom, of uncertain origin. More at lustrum.

Noun

lustre (plural lustres)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of luster: A 5-year period, especially (historical) in Roman contexts.

Etymology 3

From Latin lustra (“wilds, woods”), thought to derive from unattested *dustrum, from unattested Ancient Greek *δύστρον (*dústron, “place animals wallow”), from δύω (dúō, “to plunge, to wallow”).

Noun

lustre (plural lustres)

1. (British spelling, obsolete) Alternative form of luster: a den, a dwelling-place in a wilderness, especially for animals.

References

• “lustre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Luster, Ulster, lurest, luster, luters, result, rulest, rustle, sutler, truels, ulster

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lustrum. Doublet of llustre and llostre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈlus.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈlus.tɾe]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

lustre m (plural lustres)

1. lustrum (period of five years)

Related terms

• llustre

Further reading

• “lustre”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007