| 释义 |
ˈlooking-ˌglass
[f. looking vbl. n. + glass.]
1. a. A glass to look in, in order to see one's own face or figure; a mirror made of a plate of glass coated at the back with an amalgam of quicksilver; † applied occas. to a metal mirror (cf. glass n.1 8 b).
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 1 b, Wherein dayly & hourly I myght loke, as in a myrour or lokyng-glass. 1605Shakes. Lear v. iii. 261. 1608 Willet Hexapla Exod. 857 The brasen lauer was indeed made of the womens looking glasses. 1712Addison Spect. No. 451 ⁋1 Seeing all her Wrinkles represented in a large Looking-glass. 1728Ramsay Lass & Mirror 3 The leal-hearted Looking-glass With truths addrest the lovely Lass. 1771Wesley Jrnl. 22 July, The sea was smooth as a looking-glass. 1831Brewster Optics ii. 19 Let AB, fig. 16., be a plane mirror or looking-glass. 1876A. Laing Lindores Abbey xxvi. 384 The looking glass was invariably covered up in the chamber where the dead lay.
b. fig. (In the 16th and 17th cents. frequently used in the titles of books.) Now rare (= ‘mirror’).
1556Aurelio & Isab. L iij, The parson of a kinge is a thorrou persinge an sheninge lookinge glasse, in the whiche all the subgects sees them selfs. 1575Tymme (title) A Looking Glasse for the Court. 1587Golding De Mornay xvii. 269 The holy Scripture, is..a Looking glass to shew vs our spotes and blemishes. 1600Breton Pasquils Mad-cappe ii, Beautie is but a Babies looking glasse. 1656Trapp Comm. Ps. xxxv. 18 Great men are the Looking-glasses of the Country, according to which most men dress themselves. 1658W. Sanderson Graphice 5 The Eyes, the Looking-glasses of Nature. 1792(title) The Looking-Glass for the Mind; or Intellectual Mirror. 1847Emerson Poems (1857) 74 Each to each a looking-glass, Reflects his figure that doth pass.
2. As the name of a material: Plate glass, or glass silvered for use as a mirror.
1682N. O. Boileau's Lutrin i. 97 The Tester was all fac'd with Looking-Glass. 1764Delaval in Phil. Trans. LIV. 233 Inclosed between small plates of thick looking-glass. 1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 178 How to Quicksilver the inside of Glass Globes, so as to make them look like Looking-glass. 1886D. C. Murray Cynic Fortune viii, He took stock of his features in the little triangle of cracked looking-glass affixed to the wall.
3. In the plant-names lady's looking-glass, Venus' looking-glass (Campanula Speculum): see lady, Venus.
4. slang. A chamber-pot.
1622Beaum. & Fl. Beggar's Bush ii. iii, Ha! A Looking-glasse! 1638R. Brathwait Barnabee's Jrnl. ii. (1818) 59 Mid-night waking, And a looking-glasse there taking, Chamber-pot was hol'd quite thorow. 1709Brit. Apollo II. No. 43. 2/2 Q. Why is a Chamber-Pot call'd a Looking-Glass? A. Because many rarely see their Faces in any other.
5. attrib. and Comb., as looking-glass calm, looking-ˌglass-fitter, looking-ˌglass-frame, looking-ˌglass-maker, looking-ˌglass-man, looking-ˌglass-plate, looking-ˌglass-tin; looking-glass-panelled adj.; looking-glass carp (see quot.); looking-glass image rare = mirror image; looking-glass tree, Heritiera littoralis, the leaves of which are silvery on the under side; looking-glass world (or land), a vision of the world as it would be if seen, reversed, through a looking-glass; looking-glass writing, writing done backwards, so as to be legible by means of a mirror.
1840P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 194 A *looking-glass calm with bitter cold white frost.
1890Daily News 8 Sept. 5/5 A ‘*looking-glass carp’..differs from the ordinary carp in having very few, and those very large, scales.
a1903Mod. Advt., Junior *Looking-glass Fitter wanted.
1688Parker & Stalker Japaning v. 25 *Looking-glass-frames.
1929A. Huxley Do what you Will 44 The professional Don Juan destroys his spirit as fatally as does the professional ascetic, whose *looking-glass image he is.
1896B. Berenson Italian Painters of Renaissance (1930) ii. ii. 63 He cannot persuade himself of the unreality of *Looking-Glass Land until he has touched the back of the mirror. 1909Chesterton Tremendous Trifles 234 Always the Kingdom of Heaven is ‘at hand’, and Looking-glass Land is only through the looking-glass. 1911― Innocence of Father Brown viii. 225 An unspeakable certainty that there was something still unexplained... Could not be fully explained by his fancy about ‘looking-glass land’.
1611Cotgr., Miroaillier, a *looking-glasse maker. 1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6137/4 William Turing,..Looking-glass-maker.
1682T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 67 (1713) II. 164 The *Looking-glass-man you almost promised to deal withal the last time we met.
1902Westm. Gaz. 3 July 3/2 The cheapest bedroom furniture means a *looking-glass panelled wardrobe.
1703T. N. City & C. Purchaser 152 These *Looking-glass-plates are ground smooth and flat, and Polished.
1703T. S. Art's Improv. i. 55 Take a Plate of Polish'd Steel, which cover with that Orange, Tawny Mineral, call'd Mine de Plomb, Ground with Linseed-Oil and *Looking-glass Tin.
1866Treas. Bot., *Looking-glass tree, Heritiera.
1871‘L. Carroll’ Through Looking-Glass xii. 218 You've been along with me, Kitty—all through the *Looking-Glass world. 1963Daily Tel. 15 Aug. 18/1 It is quite conceivable that there might exist a kind of looking-glass world, in which all matter is made up from anti-matter. 1967‘A. Gilbert’ Visitor xii. 203, I felt as if I were in a Looking-Glass world where everything goes the wrong way.
1902Westm. Gaz. 29 Aug. 3/1 Notes..made with the left hand in ‘*looking-glass’ writing. |