looking-glassn.
/ˈlʊkɪŋɡlɑːs/, /ˈlʊkɪŋɡlas/, U.S. /ˈlʊkɪŋˌɡlæs/ 1.
a. A mirror, esp. one used for looking at oneself, typically made of glass with a reflective coating on one side. Cf. glass n.1 8. Now chiefly archaic and historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > mirror > [noun] > looking-glass
looking-glass1526
Venice glass1527
tooting-glassc1560
seeing-glass1565
girdle-glassa1652
Venice looking-glass1655
considering-glass1660
peeper1673
long glass1680
table glass1688
dressing glass1697
keeking-glassa1724
toilet glass1729
long mirror1793
swing-glass1809
hand glass1832
cheval-glass1836
psyche1838
tire-glass1844
tiring-glass1844
driving mirror1907
wing mirror1925
swing mirror1930
vanity mirror1959
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > mirror > [noun] > metal mirror
looking-glass1526
steel glass1530
steela1643
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection Pref. sig. Aii Wherein dayly & hourely I might loke, as a mirour or lokyng glasse.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xxiv. 257 Lend me a looking glasse . View more context for this quotation
1686 tr. J. Chardin Trav. Persia 272 The eastern People use..Glass Looking-Glasses,..tho' not near so many as Metal ones.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 451. ¶1 Seeing all her Wrinkles represented in a large Looking-glass.
1771 J. Wesley Jrnl. 22 July (1835) IV. 356 The sea was smooth as a looking-glass.
1831 D. Brewster Treat. Optics ii. 19 Let AB, fig. 16., be a plane mirror or looking-glass.
1876 A. Laing Lindores Abbey xxvi. 384 The looking glass was invariably covered up in the chamber where the dead lay.
1917 J. Conrad Shadow-line iii. 87 The sideboard, surmounted by a wide looking-glass in an ormolu frame, had a marble top.
1970 K. D. Roberts Contrib. of Joseph Ives to Connecticut Clock Technol. 1810–1862 iv. 64 (caption) Pillar and scroll shelf clock with looking glass by Ives and Lewis.
2011 Fortean Times Mar. 17/3 He claimed the ability to write on the Moon, achieving this lunography by tracing letters in blood on a looking-glass.
b. figurative and in figurative contexts. Now archaic and rare.Between the 16th and 18th centuries common in titles of books; cf. mirror n. 3a.lady's looking glass, Venus looking glass: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > representation > [noun] > a representation > as in a mirror
looking-glass?1532
reflector1767
mirror picture1890
?1532 J. G. tr. (title) The Myrour or lokynge glasse of lyfe.
1556 tr. J. de Flores Histoire de Aurelio & Isabelle sig. L3 The parson of a kinge is a thorrou persinge an sheninge lookinge glasse, in the whiche all the subgects sees them selfs.
1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. xvii. 309 The holy Scripture,..is..a Looking glass to shewe vs our spots and blemishes.
1600 N. Breton Pasquils Mad-cap 1 Beautie is but a Babies looking glasse.
1656 J. Trapp Comm. Psalms xxxv. 18 Great men are the Looking-glasses of the Country, according to which most men dress themselves.
1658 W. Sanderson Graphice 5 The Eyes, the Looking-glasses of Nature.
1707 Rehearsal 8 Mar. in C. Leslie View of Times (1708) I If these Gorgons and Hydras cou'd view their own Hew in the Looking-Glass of Reason, they wou'd Die for Fear of their own Deformity.
1792 (title) The Looking-Glass for the Mind; or Intellectual Mirror.
1837 Idler 27 May 23/2 The pedestrians..did invariably turn round and stand looking towards London, as if they had only come into the country to contemplate themselves in that looking-glass of home.
1847 R. W. Emerson Poems 97 Is to his friend a looking-glass, Reflects his figure that doth pass.
1920 Deb. Mass. Constit. Convent. 1917–18 III. xxxi. 347 Does the Convention divide itself into those who have got the light and those who are nothing but looking-glasses?
2011 T. Lampert & A. Brown tr. G. Thum Uprooted p. xv Wrocƚaw is a looking glass through which Europe's self-destruction becomes manifest.
2. slang. A chamber pot. Now rare (regional (Irish English) in later use).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > sanitation > privy or latrine > [noun] > chamber-pot, etc.
jordan1402
pissing vessel1440
pisspot1440
urinalc1475
pissing basin1481
piss bowlc1527
chamber vessel?1529
chamber pot1540
pot1568
jordan-pot1577
night-tub1616
looking-glassa1627
water-pot1629
chamber utensil1699
member-mug1699
utensil1699
pot de chambre1777
chanty1788
pig1810
piss bucket1819
chamber1829
jerry1859
po1880
thunder-mug1890
article1922
potty1937
honeypotc1947
totty-pot1966
piss-tin1974
a1627 T. Middleton Chast Mayd in Cheape-side (1630) iii. 37 Hyda, a Looking-glasse, they haue drunke so hard in Plate, That some of them had need of other Vessels.
1638 R. Brathwait Barnabees Journall (new ed.) ii. sig. I2 Mid-night waking And a looking-glasse there taking, Chamber-pot was hol'd quite thorow.
1709 Brit. Apollo 19–24 Aug. Q. Why is a Chamber-Pot call'd a Looking-Glass? A. Because many rarely see their Faces in any other.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Jockum gage, a chamber pot, jordan, looking glass, or member mug.
1800 Sporting Mag. Sept. 284/1 Two blades of London lore..Bid John, when both were half seas o'er, To bring a looking-glass.
1864 J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. (new ed.) 218 Looking-glass, a facetious synonym for a pot de chambre.
a1902 A. S. Palmer in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1902) III. 655/2 A. (at inn, wishing to adjust his tie), ‘Can I have a looking-glass, please?’ Waitress (indignantly), ‘Well, Mr. A., I always thought you were a gentleman!’
3. Glass with a reflective coating, as used for mirrors. Cf. mirror glass n. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > materials > [noun]
mirror glass1440
looking-glassa1631
selenite1668
pebble1688
optical glass1797
tain1858
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1957) III. 57 The Scriptures are as a room wainscotted with looking-glass, we see all at once.
1682 N. O. tr. N. Boileau-Despréaux Lutrin i. 97 The Tester was all fac'd with Looking-Glass.
1738 G. Smith tr. Laboratory iii. 85 How to Quicksilver the Inside of Glass Globes, so as to make them like Looking Glass.
1765 E. Delaval in Philos. Trans. 1764 (Royal Soc.) 54 233 Inclosed between small plates of thick looking-glass.
1886 D. C. Murray Cynic Fortune viii He took stock of his features in the little triangle of cracked looking-glass affixed to the wall.
1920 Amer. Woman Aug. 12/1 She glanced at her reflection in a dingy slip of looking-glass.
Compounds
C1. General attributive, objective, and instrumental.
looking-glass fitter n. now rare
ΚΠ
1861 Times 9 Feb. 2/5 (advt.) To looking-glass fitters and cutters.
1903 N.E.D. (at cited word) Mod. Advt., Junior Looking-glass Fitter wanted.
looking-glass frame n.
ΚΠ
1684 M. Prance Postscript to Observators 7 Looking-Glass-Frames, the Hafts of Knives, and a thousand other things.
1746 G. Adams Micrographia Illustrata 10 A Bracket, fixed to the Side of the Looking-Glass Frame.
1847 H. L. Smith Nat. Philos. xx. 323 Constructed like a common looking-glass frame.
1985 M.-A. Rogers Amer. Furnit. II. vi. 328/2 In those areas where the looking-glass frame and the high chest are similar.
2004 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 18 Sept. (Weekend section) 3 Many antique looking-glass frames are made of wood with gilded plaster.
looking-glass maker n. now chiefly historical
ΚΠ
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Miroaillier, a looking-glasse maker.
1723 London Gaz. No. 6137/4 William Turing,..Looking-glass-maker.
1866 14th Ann. Rep. Boston Public Libr. 104/2 Jeweller, Japanner, Looking-glass Maker.
1930 Classified Index Occupations Fifteenth Census (U.S. Bureau of Census) 134/2 Looking-glass maker, (any semi-skilled worker).
2014 Westmorland Gaz. (Nexis) 6 Nov. He was successful in the Best Apprentice of the Year Awards run by the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers and Looking Glass Makers of London.
looking-glass panelled adj. now rare
ΚΠ
1893 Standard 18 Nov. 10/6 A 6ft. 6in. sideboard, with lofty looking-glass panelled back.
1940 Connoisseur 106 100/2 These narrow bureau bookcases with one looking-glass panelled door.
C2. attributive. Designating something which is or involves the opposite of what is normal or expected, or which appears to be confused, illogical, or nonsensical. Sometimes more fully through-the-looking-glass.Chiefly with reference or allusion to ‘L. Carroll’ Through the Looking Glass (1871). Cf. looking-glass world n. at Compounds 3.
ΚΠ
[1871 [see looking-glass world n. at Compounds 3]. ]
1879 Vick's Monthly Mag. Mar. 80/1 The continent is in many respects what you might call a looking-glass country—for everything seems to be reversed in it.
1927 Foreign Affairs Aug. 38/1 It seems rather like looking-glass politics to get together men whose whole business it is to make each his own country materially as strong as he can in lethal weapons of every conceivable variety of destructiveness, and to hope anything like disarmament will come out of such a meeting.
1979 G. Chesbro Affair of Sorcerers (1988) 55 It's looking-glass ethics: the search for a kind of salvation through evil.
1983 G. D. Best H. Hoover, Postpresidential Years II. ix. 282 Too much of what was happening in Washington had a through-the-looking glass quality that defied understanding.
2007 N.Y. Mag. 19 Feb. 42/2 Something dreadfully amiss is going on at the ACLU... I'm thinking, We're in looking-glass territory. That's just so wrong it's mind-boggling.
C3. † looking-glass carp n. Obsolete = mirror carp n. at mirror n. Compounds 2.† looking-glass tin n. Obsolete rare tinfoil suitable for use as the reflective material of a looking-glass.
looking-glass calm n. rare (with reference to a body of water) complete stillness, such that the surface of the water resembles a mirror.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > flow or flowing > state of sea > [noun] > calmness
calm1393
calmness1574
looking-glass calm1840
glass-calm1893
1840 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 194 A looking-glass calm with bitter cold white frost.
2008 Daily Mail (Nexis) 22 Nov. 44 The water goes from looking-glass calm, over a lip, on to a shelf and then crashes down the slope.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Salmoniformes (salmon or trout) > superorder Ostariophysi or order Cypriniformes > [noun] > suborder Cyprinoidei > family Cyprinidae (minnows and carps) > cyprinus carpio (carp)
carpc1440
river carp1653
seizling1688
koi1727
looking-glass carp1811
king carp1874
mirror carp1879
scale carp1884
mirror1986
1811 Encycl. Londinensis (new ed.) X. 736/2 The looking-glass carp, with large scales, with which the body is however only covered in part.
1890 Daily News 8 Sept. 5/5 A ‘looking-glass carp’..differs from the ordinary carp in having very few, and those very large, scales.
looking-glass image n. something that resembles the image produced in a mirror; = mirror image n.In quot. 1850: the image seen in a looking-glass, as opposed to something resembling such an image.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > identity > [noun] > (a form that is a) mirror image
looking-glass image1850
perversion1881
enantiomorph1885
mirror image1885
1850 Boston Daily Atlas 16 Apr. An acknowledgment made to a man's looking-glass image would be valid in law.
1929 A. 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.
2000 Times 11 Sept. (Sport Monday section) 9/3 Wasps began the month in the kitchens but are now on the high table... Quins are the looking-glass image, having lost all three [matches].
looking-glass land n. = looking-glass world n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > realm of imagination > [noun] > imaginary place
fairyc1330
rumbelow?1515
Hogs Norton?1565
fairyland1600
wonderland1790
other world1804
dreamland1832
Fourth World1833
cloudland1846
Loamshire1859
looking-glass land1871
looking-glass world1871
under-land1874
cloud-world1884
Speewah1890
Ruritania1894
cloud-cuckoo-land1899
cuckoo-land1916
fantasy world1920
Squaresville1956
la-la land1979
1871 Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Dec. 11/1 You have to walk in the other direction to pass through gates in Looking-Glass Land.
1909 G. K. Chesterton Tremendous Trifles 234 Always the Kingdom of Heaven is ‘at hand’, and Looking-glass Land is only through the looking-glass.
2004 N.Y. Times 23 Apr. e4/5 There is catharsis..in working your way through this tarnished looking-glass land.
looking-glass man n. now rare a man who makes or fits looking-glasses.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > one skilled in optics > [noun] > maker of instruments
mirrorer1309
looking-glass man1664
optician1735
1664 S. Pepys Diary 17 Dec. (1971) V. 348 Then came the looking-glass man to set up the looking-glass I bought yesterday.
1844 R. Bulwer Lytton Mem. Muscovite i. 18 The town..looks with proud disdain, and ineffable contempt, upon the grocer and looking-glass man.
1934 T. H. Ormsbee Story Amer. Furnit. iii. 44 The labels and advertising of some of the looking-glass men also give us an indication of the source of the brass hardware used on chests of drawers, desks, and the like.
looking-glass plate n. now historical = mirror plate n. (a) at mirror n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1665 R. Hooke Micrographia Pref. sig. e Instead of which Paper there may be made use of a small piece of Looking-glass plate.
1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser 152 These Looking-glass-plates are ground smooth and flat, and Polished.
1897 U.S. Consular Rep. Oct. §207. 166 German looking-glass plate, (thin plate), unsilvered or for silvering.
1998 P. M. Kenny H. Lannuier, Cabinetmaker 172 Framed looking glasses and looking-glass plates were..among the mainstays of the shops.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > base metal > [noun] > tin > tinfoil
tinfoil1467
leaf tin1611
looking-glass tin1685
1685 tr. N. Lémery Mod. Curiosities of Art & Nature xxviii. 348 Take a Plate of Steel, polisht and burnisht, which cover with that Orange Tawny Mineral,..ground with Linseed Oyl and Looking-glass Tin [Fr. estain seiche].
looking-glass tree n. a large tree, Heritiera littoralis (family Malvaceae), found in coastal regions of South and South-East Asia and having leaves which are silvery on the underside.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular timber trees or shrubs > non-British timber trees > [noun] > Asian
mahua1610
jambee1704
hinoki1727
sugi1727
meranti1783
merbau1783
sal1789
sundri1799
calamander1804
sissoo1810
toon1810
looking-glass tree1822
East India mahogany1829
pyinkado1832
dhamnoo1834
haldu1836
jelutong1836
zelkova1836
cryptomeria1838
kempas1839
shisham1849
jarul1850
Japan cedar1852
mast tree1862
keyaki1863
petwood1866
alstonia1867
Malacca cane1874
Japanese cedar1880
mowra1883
seraya1893
o-matsu1916
dhaman1923
sepetir1927
kapur1935
mengkulang1940
ramin1953
1822 S. Copland Hist. Island Madagascar 330 Looking-glass Tree.
1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber vi. 202 The looking glass tree (Heritiera littoralis), with its large, oval, glossy, silver-backed leaves and boat-shaped fruit.
2010 M. Samways et al. Trop. Island Recovery 66/2 A number of indigenous trees were also planted, including Takamaka..and Looking-glass tree.
looking-glass world n. an imaginary place conceived of as being visible in the image shown in a looking-glass, esp. one in which the principles which underpin the real world (as the rules of logic, the laws of physics, etc.) operate differently, or in reverse; also in extended use.Chiefly with reference or allusion to the imaginary world depicted in ‘L. Carroll’ Through the Looking-glass (1871); cf. quot. 1871.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > realm of imagination > [noun] > imaginary place
fairyc1330
rumbelow?1515
Hogs Norton?1565
fairyland1600
wonderland1790
other world1804
dreamland1832
Fourth World1833
cloudland1846
Loamshire1859
looking-glass land1871
looking-glass world1871
under-land1874
cloud-world1884
Speewah1890
Ruritania1894
cloud-cuckoo-land1899
cuckoo-land1916
fantasy world1920
Squaresville1956
la-la land1979
1871 ‘L. Carroll’ Through Looking-glass xii. 218 You've been along with me, Kitty—all through the Looking-Glass world.
1880 L. B. Hughes Off the Reel 40 He was thus content to know everything at secondhand in this sort of looking-glass world.
1921 Theosophical Q. Apr. 291 Through the operation of the looking-glass world, the psychical man heaps upon himself dynamic images of the things perceived by his senses.
1963 Daily 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.
1981 G. L. Glegg Devel. of Design ii. 33 By transporting the real into the looking-glass world the author vividly interprets what happens on this side.
2008 C. Alba Kane's Ladder iv. 35 Sixty pence bought you a weekly ticket into a looking-glass world of culinary psychosis where black was white and white was an unappetising shade of grey.
looking-glass writing n. = mirror writing n.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > system of writing > [noun] > mirror-writing
mirror writing1776
looking-glass writing1879
mirror-script1890
1879 Globe Encycl. V. 90/2 This is as perplexing to the reader as was the ‘Looking Glass’ writing to Alice.
1949 J. B. Oldham Sandars Lect. iii. 20 The die-cutter..has..made the not uncommon mistake of producing the result of looking glass writing by forgetting to reverse it.
1996 S. Oglethorpe Instrumental Music for Dyslexics (2002) iv. 57 ‘P's’ and ‘d's’ are in themselves among the most notoriously difficult letters for a dyslexic, because of his tendency to reverse and write in looking-glass writing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1526