Definition of "burning-glass" [burning-glass]

• A magnifying lens, as used to focus sunlight on to an object. (noun)

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• "I am he through whom the rays of heavenly grace dart like those of the sun through a burning-glass, concentrating them on other objects, until they kindle and blaze, while the glass itself remains cold and uninfluenced."
• "The more he sees her, the worse he is, — uritque videndo, as in a burning-glass, the sunbeams are re-collected to a centre, the rays of love are projected from her eyes."
• "For, non pereunt, sed minuuntur et disparent, [3091] Blancanus holds they come and go by fits, casting their tails still from the sun: some of them, as a burning-glass, projects the sunbeams from it; though not always neither: for sometimes a comet casts his tail from Venus, as Tycho observes."