lorgnette
1
9.9
- noun
- /lɔrˈnɛt/
- Archaic
- The old gentleman raised his lorgnette to get a better view of the passing parade.
Examples
-
"Hush," said the old woman with the lorgnette to the others.
Fiction book (1997) -
"She gestured with her lorgnette, north and east over Riverside."
Fiction book (1997) -
At one table sat the turbaned old woman with the lorgnette who had steered him toward the light.
Fiction book (1997) -
An old lady in a turban and Japanese kimono was regarding him shrewdly through a lorgnette.
Fiction book (1997) -
She squinted through the lorgnette she held between her thumb and forefinger.
Fiction book (1997) -
She held her lorgnette to see the performance more clearly from the back row.
-
With his lorgnette, he scanned the crowd for a familiar face at the gala.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Lorgnette comes from the French verb lorgner meaning 'to look' and the small ending -ette meaning 'little' (the same small ending in kitchenette and cigarette). So a lorgnette is like a 'little look', a small hand-held pair of glasses used to look closely at things.