tel·e·scope
(tĕl′ĭ-skōp′)n.1. An arrangement of lenses or mirrors or both that gathers light, permitting direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects.
2. Any of various devices, such as a radio telescope, used to detect and observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation.
v. tel·e·scoped, tel·e·scop·ing, tel·e·scopes
v.tr.1. To cause to slide inward or outward in overlapping sections, as the cylindrical sections of a small hand telescope do.
2. To make more compact or concise; condense.
v.intr. To slide inward or outward in or as if in overlapping cylindrical sections: a camp bucket that telescopes into a disk.
[New Latin
telescopium or Italian
telescopio, both from Greek
tēleskopos,
far-seeing :
tēle-,
tele- +
skopos,
watcher; see
spek- in
Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.