looking-glass
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: * (way into a bizarre world): From the book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) by Lewis Carroll.
Inflected forms:
form: looking-glasses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: looking glass
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Synonym of mirror (“smooth surface that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it”).
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: A Divine Looking-Glaſs: Or, The third and laſt Teſtament of our Lord, JESUS CHRIST, […] [title]
Even ſo the account of your Looking-glaſs puts us in hopes of ſome mighty Diſcoveries to be made by the Help of it, and at the ſame time, ſeems to carry its own Contradiction along with it; for a Pocket Looking-glaſs, is, doubtleſs, a moſt prepoſterous Help for taking a Clear View of a Great Coloſſus, unleſs it be one of thoſe, that contract the largeſt Bodies into a ſmall compaſs; and then it may give us an Idea of the Proportions, but not a clearer View of all the Partcular Beauties or Deformities.
This ruggedneſs of the Moon's ſurface is of great uſe to us, by reflecting the Sun's light to all ſides: for if the Moon were ſmooth and poliſhed like a looking-glaſs, or covered with water, ſhe could never diſtribute the Sun's light all round; […]
He [Frederick William I of Prussia] commanded his physician to tell him exactly how long he had to live; and when he answered, ‘about half an hour,’ he asked for a looking-glass, and said, with a smile, that he did look ill enough, and saw ‘qu’il ferait une vilaine grimace en mourant.’
[T]wo days before Captain [Hugh] Clapperton died, he requested to be shaved, as he was too weak to sit up. After the operation, he asked for a looking-glass, remarked that he was "doing better," and should certainly "get over it." The morning on which he died, he breathed loud, became restless, and shortly afterwards expired in [Richard] Lander's arms.
Many sorts of glass were in the market, called Lambeth or Ratcliffe, Normandy, German, white and green, Dutch, Newcastle, Staffordshire, and Bristol glass, looking glass and jealous glass. […] Looking glass plates were sometimes used in windows.
The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
17th Drew in the dead body in the corrected sketch in Pen & Ink. It is rather dreary. Worked at sundries from Self in the looking glass (8 hours). / 18th worked all day from self in looking glass in shirts & draws. […]
By Saturday, the 12th September, everything was topsy-turvy in the Rostow's house; doors were set open, furniture packed or moved from its place, looking-glasses and pictures taken down, […]
Everything a living animal could do to destroy and to desecrate bed and walls had been done. […] A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a plastic wardrobe.
gloss: A way into a bizarre world.
pos: noun
examples: It has been quite a week in politics. […] I know that some Republicans feel as if they've fallen through the looking glass.
Derived words: looking-glass mangrove
through the looking-glass
Venus's looking-glass
Translations: