spy-glass
Also spyglass.
[f. spy v. + glass n.1 10. Cf. spying-glass.]
1. A telescope; a field-glass.
| 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 11 He's never without a swinging large Spy-glass. 1753 Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 227 Turning the little end of a spy-glass, it appeared something like the ruins of Palmyra. 1814 Scott Diary 31 Aug. in Lockhart (1837) III. viii. 252 The whole, as seen with a spyglass, seems ruinous. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack xxi, A telescope, or spy-glass, as sailors generally call them. 1875 W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 50 Here with a spy⁓glass one may discern the entrance to Dirk Hatterick's cave. |
2. dial. An eye-glass.
| 1883 R. Cleland Inchbracken xi. 86, I have lost my gold spy-glass, something has caught the chain and broken it. |