microscope

plural microscopes

1. An optical instrument used for observing small objects.

   That he might ascertain whether any of the cloths of ancient Egypt were made of hemp, M. Dutrochet has examined with the microscope the weavable filaments of this last vegetable.

   1837, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, volume 23, page 222

   1 more example

   Elsewhere, professionals could enthuse over new precision instruments capable, for instance, of measuring weights down to a tenth of a milligram, or over a host of self-registering thermometers and barometers, microscopes, typewriters, calculators and all sorts of technical and musical devices, including automatic concertinas, edeophones, auto-harps, bigophones and other long-forgotten objects.

   1978, Jan Romein, The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in 1900, page 303

2. Any instrument for imaging very small objects (such as an electron microscope).

present singular third person microscopes · participle present microscoping · participle past microscoped · past microscoped

1. To examine with a microscope, to put under a microscope (literally or figuratively).

   It has a strong germicidal action, as can be verified by staining and microscoping the pus, the characteristic micro-organisms disappearing rapidly under its use.

   1897, The Clinical Journal, page 200

   1 more example

   Wright (1959), using the standard and less laborious technique of microscoping the centrifuged deposit of a sample of urine, found that 21.6% of males attending life insurance examinations had more than 10 red blood cells per high power field (rbc/hpf).

   2012, E.J. Zingg, D.M.A. Wallace, Bladder Cancer, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 79

   Synonyms: microscopize