telescope Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a magnifier of images of distant objects
scope.
verb crush together or collapse
- In the accident, the cars telescoped
- my hiking sticks telescope and can be put into the backpack
verb make smaller or shorter
- the novel was telescoped into a short play

Gr. viewing afar, farseeing; far, far off + a watcher, akin to to view: cf. F. télescope. See Telegraph, and -scope.

An optical instrument used in viewing distant objects, as the heavenly bodies. ✍ A telescope assists the eye chiefly in two ways; first, by enlarging the visual angle under which a distant object is seen, and thus magnifying that object; and, secondly, by collecting, and conveying to the eye, a larger beam of light than would enter the naked organ, thus rendering objects distinct and visible which would otherwise be indistinct and or invisible. Its essential parts are the object glass, or concave mirror, which collects the beam of light, and forms an image of the object, and the eyeglass, which is a microscope, by which the image is magnified.

imperfect & past participle Telescoped ; present participle & verbal noun Telescoping

To slide or pass one within another, after the manner of the sections of a small telescope or spyglass; to come into collision, as railway cars, in such a manner that one runs into another. Recent