Also spyglass. [f. SPY v. + GLASS sb.1 10. Cf. SPYING-GLASS.]
1. A telescope; a field-glass.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 11. Hes never without a swinging large Spy-glass.
1753. Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 227. Turning the little end of a spy-glass, it appeared something like the ruins of Palmyra.
1814. Scott, Diary, 31 Aug., in Lockhart (1837), III. viii. 252. The whole, as seen with a spyglass, seems ruinous.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxi. A telescope, or spy-glass, as sailors generally call them.
1875. W. MIlwraith, Guide to Wigtownshire, 50. Here with a spyglass one may discern the entrance to Dirk Hattericks cave.
2. dial. An eye-glass.
1883. R. Cleland, Inchbracken, xi. 86. I have lost my gold spy-glass, something has caught the chain and broken it.