Word Finder - spectacles

definition

Two similar or identical things taken together; often followed by of.

example

I couldn't decide which of the pair of designer shirts I preferred, so I bought the pair.

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Two people in a relationship, partnership or friendship.

example

Spouses should make a great pair.

definition

Used with binary nouns (often in the plural to indicate multiple instances, since such nouns are plural only, except in some technical contexts)

example

a pair of scissors; two pairs of spectacles; several pairs of jeans

definition

A couple of working animals attached to work together, as by a yoke.

example

A pair is harder to drive than two mounts with separate riders.

definition

A poker hand that contains two cards of identical rank, which cannot also count as a better hand.

definition

A score of zero runs (a duck) in both innings of a two-innings match.

synonyms

• pair of spectacles
• spectacles

definition

A double play, two outs recorded in one play.

example

They turned a pair to end the fifth.

definition

A doubleheader, two games played on the same day between the same teams

example

The Pirates took a pair from the Phillies.

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A boat for two sweep rowers.

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A pair of breasts

example

She's got a gorgeous pair.

definition

The exclusion of one member of a parliamentary party from a vote, if a member of the other party is absent for important personal reasons.

definition

Two members of opposite parties or opinion, as in a parliamentary body, who mutually agree not to vote on a given question, or on issues of a party nature during a specified time.

example

There were two pairs on the final vote.

definition

A number of things resembling one another, or belonging together; a set.

definition

(kinematics) In a mechanism, two elements, or bodies, which are so applied to each other as to mutually constrain relative motion; named in accordance with the motion it permits, as in turning pair, sliding pair, twisting pair.

definition

An exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc.

example

The horse race was a thrilling spectacle.

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An embarrassing or unedifying scene or situation.

example

He made a spectacle out of himself.

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(usually in the plural) An optical instrument consisting of two lenses set in a light frame, and worn to assist sight, to obviate some defect in the organs of vision, or to shield the eyes from bright light.

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An aid to the intellectual sight.

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A spyglass; a looking-glass.

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The brille of a snake.

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A frame with different coloured lenses on a semaphore signal through which light from a lamp shines at night, often a part of the signal arm.

definition

A pair of lenses set in a frame worn on the nose and ears in order to correct deficiencies in eyesight or to ornament the face.

He felt the tears trickle under his spectacles and hoped they would not be noticed.

Convex spectacles were invented towards the end of the 13th century.

Pierre looked at her over his spectacles.

I imitated this action, even wearing his spectacles, thinking they might help solve the mystery.

The spectacles most admired by all classes are the tints of the foliage in autumn andthegloryof flowering trees in the spring.

Pierre looked solemnly at his audience over his spectacles and continued.

Sometimes children with optic neuropathy find spectacles improve vision.

Western Optical sells Roll-up Post Mydriatic Spectacles.

He was a puny, skinny man wearing National Health spectacles.

Pierre looked over his spectacles with naive surprise, now at him and now at her, moved as if about to rise too, but changed his mind.

A deep furrow ran across his forehead, and standing by a window he stared over his spectacles seeing no one.

His largesses, his distributions of food, his public works, and his spectacles were all on a generous scale.

Wear special spectacles which keep in moisture and so reduce dryness of the eyes.

The Convention held its first session in a hall of the Tuileries, then it sat in the hall of Manege, and finally from the 10th of May 1793 in that of the Spectacles (or Machines), an immense hall in which the deputies were but loosely scattered.

You can get spectacles, goggles, full face shields, and more.

It is not curable, but its symptoms can be diminished with spectacles or contact lenses.

Pierre looked silently and inquiringly at him over his spectacles.

And that stout one in spectacles is the universal Freemason, she went on, indicating Pierre.

The IMAX movie theaters are grand spectacles to say the very least, and watching a feature-length Hollywood movie in one is a breathtaking experience.

Many binoculars have eyecups that can be either folded or pushed down for use with spectacles.

Those with rose tinted spectacles will recall the great Revie team playing in front of sell out crowds each home game.

Surgery is only one of the ways of treating strabismus; other methods include wearing spectacles and wearing eye patches.

Thrice only did he visit Europe between 1863 and 1902, the result of this long comparative isolation, and of his constant intercourse with the Peking officials, being that he learnt to look at events through Chinese spectacles; and his work, These from the Land of Sinim, shows how far this affected his outlook.

He undoubtedly instigated D'Alembert to include a censure of the prohibition in his Encyclopedic article on "Geneva," a proceeding which provoked Rousseau's celebrated Lettre a D'Alembert sur les spectacles.

Pierre took off his spectacles, which made his face seem different and the good-natured expression still more apparent, and gazed at his friend in amazement.

Pierre, in order to make Boris' better acquaintance, promised to come to dinner, and warmly pressing his hand looked affectionately over his spectacles into Boris' eyes.

He became still more absorbed in his task when the Russian general entered, and after glancing over his spectacles at Balashev's face, which was animated by the beauty of the morning and by his talk with Murat, he did not rise or even stir, but scowled still more and sneered malevolently.

When Michael Ivanovich returned to the study with the letter, the old prince, with spectacles on and a shade over his eyes, was sitting at his open bureau with screened candles, holding a paper in his outstretched hand, and in a somewhat dramatic attitude was reading his manuscript-- his "Remarks" as he termed it--which was to be transmitted to the Emperor after his death.

Myopia is most commonly treated with spectacles or glasses.

Where, on the other hand, there is no tendency to squinting, care must be taken in selecting spectacles that the distances between the centres of the glasses and the centres of the pupils are quite equal, otherwise squinting, or at any rate great fatigue, of the eyes may be induced.

It advances with years, requiring from time to time spectacles of increasing strength.

Next day the National Assembly issued a decree expressing their great sorrow on account of his death; and the public funeral on the 7th of July was one of the most striking spectacles of its kind.

Pierre approached, looking at her in a childlike way through his spectacles.

Pierre, who at his wife's command had let his hair grow and abandoned his spectacles, went about the rooms fashionably dressed but looking sad and dull.

Without changing his careless attitude, Pierre looked at them over his spectacles unable to understand what they wanted or how they could go on living without having solved the problems that so absorbed him.

Marya Dmitrievna, with her spectacles hanging down on her nose and her head flung back, stood in the hall doorway looking with a stern, grim face at the new arrivals.

She spoke in a soft, tremulous voice, and in the weary eyes that looked over her spectacles Sonya read all that the countess meant to convey with these words.

The amounts they ate compared to me - well I just had to keep my rose tinted spectacles on did n't I !

They hold in their hands books turned upside down, and pretend to read through spectacles in which for glass have been substituted bits of orange-peel."

Soon after came the first Punic war, the principal scene of which was Sicily, where, from common hostility to the Carthaginian, Greek and Roman were brought into friendly relations, and the Roman armies must have become familiar with the spectacles and performances of the Greek theatre.

Tertullian (c. 160-240) uses it in both senses, of an oath, as in the passage of his treatise About Spectacles, where he says that no Christian " passes over to the enemy's camp without throwing away his arms, without abandoning the standards and sacraments of his chief."

In 1758 appeared his Lettre a d'Alembert contre les spectacles, written in the winter of the previous year at Montlouis.

Convex glass lenses were first generally used to assist ordinary vision as " spectacles "; and not only were spectacle-makers the first to produce glass magnifiers (or simple microscopes), but by them also the telescope and the compound microscope were first invented.

Between 1725 and 1750, a London optician designed the first temple spectacles, while Ben Franklin invented bifocals.

However, much damage was done by inappropriate spectacles sold by hawkers.

Hand held magnifiers can be used in conjunction with normal distance or reading spectacles.

Learn about comical penguins, great whales, belching seals and some of the most stunning wildlife spectacles in the natural world.

Avoiding pollen There may be some useful things you could do, from closing windows to going abroad, or even wearing special spectacles.

A moment later I saw him sitting down beside the Roman Catholic priest with the dark horn rimmed spectacles.

John T Hall 25 Nov 2005 Suggest Leon Rose takes off his rose-tinted spectacles.