reticule
Americannoun
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(in the 18th and 19th centuries) a woman's small bag or purse, usually in the form of a pouch with a drawstring and made of net, beading, brocade, etc
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a variant of reticle
Etymology
Origin of reticule
1720–30; < French réticule < Latin rēticulum reticle
Explanation
If you've ever peered through a telescope, you've seen a reticule, though you probably didn't know that's what you were looking at. It's the network of tiny lines that make up a sighting device's eyepiece. The crosshairs of a gun's scope or sight — which help a marksman aim when shooting — are one kind of reticule. Others exist, whether they can be clearly seen or not, in just about any instrument you look through, whether it's a telescope or a microscope. Another way to spell it is reticle, but either way it comes from the Latin word reticulatus, "having a net-like pattern," itself from reticulum, "little net."
Vocabulary lists containing reticule
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.
She dispensed intelligence and irony as if each were fresh herbs in a reticule she kept tied to the belt of her dress.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2020
The first lady, “caught up what silver she could crowd into her old-fashioned reticule, and then jumped into the chariot with her servant girl Sukey, and Daniel Carroll, who took charge of them,” Jennings wrote.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 7, 2018
Before the quartet exited my field of vision, I saw the husband bounding in pursuit of the three women, yelping a bit and waving the reticule in the air.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2018
Pressing back on the D-Pad kicks my speeder into a sharp turn, and I'm facing back toward the battle, the closest walker covered in a crackling blue light in the center of my aiming reticule.
From The Verge ● Sep. 23, 2015
It chattered excitedly as Cassiopeia fed it petites madeleines out of her reticule.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
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.
