spying-glass
[f. prec.]
1. = spy-glass 1. Now rare.
| 1682 tr. Glanius' Voy. Bengala 28 Thus did they appear to us through our Spying-Glass, and every one..believed they saw very distinctly with it. 1739 Wks. of Learned I. 85 From whence Servius might conclude that he knew the Use of Spying-Glasses. 1770 Baretti Journ. Lond. to Genoa I. x. 59, I saw through my spying-glass a ship that seemed to make towards us. 1803 Naval Chron. IX. 477 By the help of my spying-glass I had made a drawing. 1885 R. Buchanan Annan Water ix, I was up on the tower wi' my spying-glass. |
† 2. An opera-glass; an eye-glass. Obs.
| 1767 Warburton in W. & Hurd Lett. (1809) 405, I was accosted by a little, round, well-fed gentleman, with..a spying-glass dangling in a black ribbon at his button. 1780 Ann. Reg. ii. 4 As they are masked, they do not scruple to reconnoitre the company with their spying-glasses. 1795 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Convention Bill Wks. 1812 III. 380 And will it not be deem'd a daring thing To ogle through a spying-glass the King. |