lorgnette
Americannoun
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a pair of eyeglasses mounted on a handle.
-
a pair of opera glasses mounted on a handle.
noun
Etymology
Origin of lorgnette
1795–1805; < French, derivative of lorgner to eye furtively; -ette
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.
He held a pair of tortoiseshell lorgnette glasses to his eyes, to get a better look at the flames climbing the building’s walls.
From Literature
A lyrical aesthete and a Flaubertian prose polisher, he is pictured, in “Lucky Per,” as the sickly poet Enevoldsen, fussing with his lorgnette at a Copenhagen café while worrying about “where to put a comma.”
From The New Yorker
Mrs. Van Hopper putting up her lorgnette and calling to her daughter.
From Literature
And, like a Brontë sister in a box at the opera, Perry observes the drama from an omniscient perch, examining her characters as if through a lorgnette.
From New York Times
People lost things then that we don’t lose now, simply because we don’t use them: lorgnettes, pince-nez spectacles, chatelaine bags, fox tails, feather boas, auto starter cranks, pocket watches, watch fobs, watch keys .
From Washington Post
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.
