MAGNIFYING GLASS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does magnifying glass mean? 

• MAGNIFYING GLASS (noun)
  The noun MAGNIFYING GLASS has 1 sense:

1. light microscope consisting of a single convex lens that is used to produce an enlarged image

  Familiarity information: MAGNIFYING GLASS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAGNIFYING GLASS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Light microscope consisting of a single convex lens that is used to produce an enlarged image

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

hand glass; magnifying glass; simple microscope

Context example:

the magnifying glass was invented by Roger Bacon in 1250

Hypernyms ("magnifying glass" is a kind of...):

light microscope (microscope consisting of an optical instrument that magnifies the image of an object)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "magnifying glass"):

jeweler's loupe; loupe (small magnifying glass (usually set in an eyepiece) used by jewelers and horologists)

 Context examples 

In the case of Icarus, a natural “magnifying glass” is created by a galaxy cluster called MACS J1149+2223.

(Hubble Uncovers the Farthest Star Ever Seen, NASA)

To see Miss Mowcher standing over him, looking at his rich profusion of brown hair through a large round magnifying glass, which she took out of her pocket, was a most amazing spectacle.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As he held the waxen print close to the blood-stain, it did not take a magnifying glass to see that the two were undoubtedly from the same thumb.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But this opinion was rejected by the other two, who observed my limbs to be perfect and finished; and that I had lived several years, as it was manifest from my beard, the stumps whereof they plainly discovered through a magnifying glass.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Look at that with your magnifying glass, Mr. Holmes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by experiment that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and ill-coloured.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)