Definitions
Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word burning-glasses.
Examples
-
[4943] Philostratus Lemnius cries out on his mistress's basilisk eyes, ardentes faces, those two burning-glasses, they had so inflamed his soul, that no water could quench it.
-
There was, I believe, a kind of phrensy in my manner, which threw her into a panic, like that of Semele perhaps, when the Thunderer, in all his majesty, surrounded with ten thousand celestial burning-glasses, was about to scorch her into a cinder.
Clarissa Harlowe 2006
-
Also, as I have said, the bubbles themselves within the ice operate as burning-glasses to melt the ice beneath.
Walden 2004
-
All was sun-parched; the furious heat from above was drying up the sap and juice of the land, as the simmering and quivering atmosphere showed; moreover the heavy dews of these regions, forming in large drops upon the plants and stones, concentrate the morning rays upon them like a system of burning-glasses.
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah 2003
-
There was talk of gigantic mirrors that would act as burning-glasses and blind the opposing troops.
Army Boys on the Firing Line or, Holding Back the German Drive Homer Randall
-
Swift, if our memory serves us aright, compares abstracts, abridgments, and summaries to burning-glasses, and has something about a full book resembling the tail of a lobster.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 405, December 19, 1829 Various
-
It was as agonizing as if Willie's spectacles were huge burning-glasses focussing the rays of a tropic sun upon his bare flesh.
Going Some Rex Ellingwood Beach 1913
-
"The sun's rather strong down here, Helena, and if you're not careful you'll scorch your neck with those burning-glasses you've got in your ears."
The Miracle Man 1909
-
He is likewise stated to have set their vessels on fire by burning-glasses; this, however, rests upon modern authority, and Archimedes is rather believed to have set the ships on fire by machines for throwing lighted materials.
-
It should be observed that neither Polybius nor Plutarch mentions the use of burning-glasses in connection with the siege of Syracuse, nor indeed are these referred to by any other ancient writer of authority.
A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume I: The Beginnings of Science 1904
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.