spyglass

noun

spy·​glass ˈspī-ˌglas How to pronounce spyglass (audio)
: a small telescope

Examples of spyglass in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The imaginative set includes an expandable toy spyglass, a toy compass that really spins, shoulder bag and a pretend key ring with baubles and dinglehopper. Anna Tingley, Variety, 12 May 2023 Each storyline will have Disney characters leading passengers to diverse areas of the ship where the spyglass will turn the physical into something more — for instance, enchanted paintings will reveal cooperative activities, like making gumbo with Tiana or capturing the Kakamora with Moana. Zoe Hewitt, Variety, 19 Aug. 2021 They’re also given a working spyglass to look out for incoming Spanish ships and a compass to chart out cannon ranges from the ruins of the fort over the Frederica river. Alex Hazlett, Outside Online, 9 Nov. 2022 The legs of a girl who happens to be sheltering by chance under this same colonnade— from atop her knee a drop admires the leg’s cascade, a spyglass sent from heaven by our great voyeur. Mira Rosenthal, The New York Review of Books, 1 Dec. 2022 Think of it as a handheld telescope or spyglass, long a favorite of sea captains and pirates, after all. Everett Potter, Forbes, 18 May 2021 Rather than viewing the facility through the eyes of those seeking a new life, the French poet and author hands the spyglass instead to a fictional bureaucrat within its walls. Rebekah Denn, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Dec. 2020 Astronomers are still finding moons at Jupiter, 400 years after Galileo used his spyglass to spot the first ones. Emiliano Rodriguez Mega, The Seattle Times, 17 July 2018 But in 1850, long before Stone, Abijah Fessenden patented a drinking tube with a filter attached to a vessel shaped like a spyglass. Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic, 21 June 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spyglass.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1706, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of spyglass was in 1706

Dictionary Entries Near spyglass

Cite this Entry

“Spyglass.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spyglass. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

spyglass

noun
spy·​glass ˈspī-ˌglas How to pronounce spyglass (audio)
: a small telescope
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!