Meaning & use
spyglass
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Meaning
nouncountable
A small hand-held telescope, usually one that pulls out in sections, used for looking at things far away, especially at sea.
Grammar: Can be counted: a spyglass, two spyglasses.
Patterns
- look through a spyglass
- scan something with a spyglass
The captain raised his spyglass and studied the faint line of land on the horizon.
My grandfather kept a brass spyglass on the shelf beside his old sailing maps.
She watched the distant sails through a spyglass borrowed from the harbor master.
Word forms
| plural | spyglasses |
|---|
Common combinations
- raise a spyglass
- The lookout raised a spyglass to his eye.
- through a spyglass
- Through a spyglass, the island looked much closer.
- brass spyglass
- A brass spyglass hung in the museum case.
- scan with a spyglass
- He scanned the coast with a spyglass for any sign of smoke.
- pirate's spyglass
- The child wore an eye patch and held a toy pirate's spyglass.
Synonyms and how they differ
- telescope
- Telescope is the general word and also covers large astronomical instruments, whereas spyglass suggests a small, hand-held, old-style one.
- binoculars
- Binoculars have two eyepieces and are used with both eyes, while a spyglass has a single tube.
- field glass
- Field glass is an older term for a similar viewing instrument and sounds more technical than the story-flavored spyglass.
Word family
- spy verb
- to catch sight of something, especially from far away
- glass noun
- the lens material that gives the instrument its name
- telescopic adjective
- relating to telescopes or able to extend in sections
Commonly confused: spyglass or spyglass vs. magnifying glass?
spyglass vs spyglass vs. magnifying glass
A spyglass makes distant objects look closer, while a magnifying glass makes small things nearby look bigger.
Practice
The captain lifted his ___ and searched the horizon for the enemy ship.
Choose one answer.
A spyglass is a small telescope for seeing far-off objects. A magnifying glass and a microscope enlarge nearby things, so they would not help at sea.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “spyglass”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.