crystal gazing
Americannoun
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the practice of staring into a crystal ball, as by a fortuneteller, to see distant happenings, future events, etc.
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speculation about the future.
noun
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the act of staring into a crystal globe (crystal ball) supposedly in order to arouse visual perceptions of the future, etc
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the act of trying to predict something
Other Word Forms
- crystal gazer noun
Etymology
Origin of crystal gazing
First recorded in 1885–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Determining when quantum computers will become ubiquitous and what problems they will solve is an exercise in crystal gazing.
From Scientific American • Feb. 13, 2023
Seven hundred earnest conferees at the 13th Boston Conference on Distribution last week heard some startling crystal gazing on the future of price control.
From Time Magazine Archive
Although these reports seemed based on journalistic crystal gazing, there was no doubt that Brezhnev was indisposed and incommunicado.
From Time Magazine Archive
Today, all crystal gazing aside, the leading candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1944�with no one even remotely second�is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
From Time Magazine Archive
Harry asked them after a quarter of an hour’s quiet crystal gazing.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
