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Definition of "telescope" []

  • An arrangement of lenses or mirrors or both that gathers visible light, permitting direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects. (noun)
  • Any of various devices, such as a radio telescope, used to detect and observe distant objects by their emission, transmission, reflection, or other interaction with invisible radiation. (noun)
  • To cause to slide inward or outward in overlapping sections, as the cylindrical sections of a small hand telescope do. (verb-transitive)
  • To make more compact or concise; condense. (verb-transitive)
  • To slide inward or outward in or as if in overlapping cylindrical sections: a camp bucket that telescopes into a disk. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "telescope" in a sentence
  • "We had been told that the computer at the Musk, which controls those webcams as well as the telescope (when the telescope is there) had failed due to low temperatures."
  • "This telescope is the largest solar one on our fair planet at the moment."
  • "The word "telescope" comes from the Greek, tele (τηλε) meaning "far off", and skopein (σκοπειν) meaning "to see.""