telescope

noun

1. A monocular optical instrument that magnifies distant objects, especially in astronomy.

   “It needs a scientific telescope, it needs to be reinterpreted and artificially brought near us, before we can so much as know that it was a Sun.”

   “It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope.”

   “About ten months ago a report reached my ears that a Dutchman had constructed a telescope, by the aid of which visible objects, although at a great distance from the eye of the observer, were seen distinctly as if near; […]”

   “This was one of the great missed opportunities of theoretical physics. If Einstein had stuck with his original equations, he could have predicted that the universe must be either expanding or contracting. As it was, the possibility of a time-dependent universe wasn't taken seriously until observations in the 1920s by the 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson.”

   “The 1.2-meter-diameter (4-foot-diameter) telescope has set off on a monthlong journey to its orbital destination of the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, which is nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth and also home to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Euclid will keep pace with Earth as our planet orbits the sun.”

2. Any instrument used in astronomy for observing distant objects (such as a radio telescope).
3. A retractable tubular support for lights.

   “In some studios the telescopes are fixed to the lighting grid […]”

4. A kind of goldfish with protruding eyes, first bred in China.

   “Chinese Telescopes are sold by some dealers for young Japanese Fringetails. For this reason it is well to select a reliable dealer when purchasing choice stock.”

verb

1. (ambitransitive)To extend or contract in the manner of a telescope.

   “Hugo rose to his full height, which was triple that of Grunt Buggely’s, even without his neck telescoped.”

2. (ambitransitive)To slide or pass one within another, after the manner of the sections of a small telescope or spyglass.
3. (intransitive)To come into collision, as railway cars, in such a manner that one runs into another.
4. (ambitransitive)To collapse, via cancellation.