telescope

plural telescopes

1. A monocular optical instrument that magnifies distant objects, especially in astronomy.

   It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope.

   1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Difficulties on Theory”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 188

   4 more examples

   It needs a scientific telescope, it needs to be reinterpreted and artificially brought near us, before we can so much as know that it was a Sun.

   1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 155

   About ten months ago a report reached my ears that a Dutchman had constructed a telescope, by the aid of which visible objects, although at a great distance from the eye of the observer, were seen distinctly as if near; […]

   1880 [1610 March 13], Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, “The Astronomical Messenger”, in Edward Stafford Carlos, transl., The Sidereal Messenger of Galileo Galilei and a Part of the Preface to Kepler's Dioptrics Containing the Original Account of Galileo's Astronomical Discoveries: A Translation with Introduction and Notes, London: Rivingtons, translation of Sidereus Nuncius: […] , →OCLC, page 10

   This was one of the great missed opportunities of theoretical physics. If Einstein had stuck with his original equations, he could have predicted that the universe must be either expanding or contracting. As it was, the possibility of a time-dependent universe wasn't taken seriously until observations in the 1920s by the 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson.

   2001 November 28, Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Relativity”, in The Universe in a Nutshell, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 21

   The 1.2-meter-diameter (4-foot-diameter) telescope has set off on a monthlong journey to its orbital destination of the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, which is nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth and also home to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Euclid will keep pace with Earth as our planet orbits the sun.

   2021 December 24, Don Lincoln, “The telescope that will replace Hubble will launch on Christmas. Here’s why it matters”, in CNN

2. Any instrument used in astronomy for observing distant objects (such as a radio telescope).
3. broadcastingA retractable tubular support for lights.

   In some studios the telescopes are fixed to the lighting grid […]

   1963, Television Engineering: Report, page 245

4. A kind of goldfish with protruding eyes, first bred in China.

   Chinese Telescopes are sold by some dealers for young Japanese Fringetails. For this reason it is well to select a reliable dealer when purchasing choice stock.

   1928, Robert V. Sawyer, Edwin H. Perkins, Water Gardens and Goldfish, page 92

present singular third person telescopes · participle present telescoping · participle past telescoped · past telescoped

1. ambitransitiveTo extend or contract in the manner of a telescope.

   Hugo rose to his full height, which was triple that of Grunt Buggely’s, even without his neck telescoped.

   1988, Barry B[rookes] Longyear, Naked Came the Robot, New York, N.Y.: Popular Library, →ISBN, page 155

2. ambitransitiveTo slide or pass one within another, after the manner of the sections of a small telescope or spyglass.
3. intransitiveTo come into collision, as railway cars, in such a manner that one runs into another.
4. ambitransitivemathematicsTo collapse, via cancellation.