Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to the eye or vision.
  • adjective Of or relating to the science of optics or optical equipment.
  • noun An eye.
  • noun Any of the lenses, prisms, or mirrors of an optical instrument.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Relating or pertaining to vision or sight; visual; subservient to the faculty or function of seeing.
  • Of or pertaining to the eye as the organ of vision; ocular; ophthalmic.
  • Relating to the science of optics.
  • The angle which the visual axes of the eyes make with one another as they tend to meet at some distance before the eyes.
  • The angle between the optic axes in a biaxial crystal.
  • The line in a doubly refracting crystal in the direction of which no double refraction occurs. Crystals belonging to the tetragonal and hexagonal systems have a single optic axis, coincident with their vertical crystallographical axis: hence they are said to be uniaxial. Crystals belonging to the orthorhombic, monoclinic, and triclinic systems have two optic axes, and hence are biaxial.
  • Synonyms Optic, Optical. The former is chiefly said of the anatomy of the eye and of the physiology of vision, the latter chiefly of the science of optics: as, optic nerve, tract, lobe; optical angle, center, effect.
  • noun The eye.
  • noun An eye-glass; a magnifying glass.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The organ of sight; an eye.
  • noun obsolete An eyeglass.
  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or using vision or sight.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the eye; ocular. See Illust. of Brain, and Eye.
  • adjective Relating to the science of optics or to devices designed to assist vision.
  • adjective (Opt.) the angle included between the optic axes of the two eyes when directed to the same point; -- sometimes called binocular parallax.
  • adjective (Opt.) The line in a doubly refracting crystal, in the direction of which no double refraction occurs. A uniaxial crystal has one such line, a biaxial crystal has two.
  • adjective (Opt.) a graduated circle used for the measurement of angles in optical experiments.
  • adjective a surveyor's instrument with reflectors for laying off right angles.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, or relating to the eye or to vision.
  • adjective Of, or relating to optics or optical instruments.
  • noun An eye.
  • noun A lens or other part of an optical instrument that interacts with light.
  • noun A measuring device with a small window, attached to an upside-down bottle, used to dispense alcoholic drinks in a bar.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or using sight
  • noun the organ of sight
  • adjective of or relating to or resembling the eye

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English optik, from Old French optique, from Medieval Latin opticus, from Greek optikos, from optos, visible; see okw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin opticus, from Ancient Greek ὀπτικός (optikos, "of seeing").

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Examples

  • The second pair are the optic nerves, which, under the name of the _optic tracts_, run down to the base of the brain, from which an optic nerve passes to each eyeball.

    A Practical Physiology Albert F. Blaisdell

  • In fishes, reptiles, and birds they are hollow, and only two in number (corpora bigemina); they represent the superior colliculi of mammals, and are frequently termed the optic lobes, because of their intimate connection with the optic tracts.

    IX. Neurology. 4b. The Mid-brain or Mesencephalon 1918

  • McConnell enlisted in the Army Reserve in July 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War but received a medical discharge after less than six months for an eye condition called optic neuritis, according to limited information that has been made public.

    Michael Rogers: What is Mitch McConnell Hiding? 2008

  • The brain of a fish is very small, compared with the spinal cord into which it is continued, and with the nerves which come off from it: of the segments of which it is composed — the olfactory lobes, the cerebral hemisphere, and the succeeding divisions — no one predominates so much over the rest as to obscure or cover them; and the so-called optic lobes are, frequently, the largest masses of all.

    Essays 2007

  • The midbrain bears swellings that are particularly concerned with the sense of sight and are therefore termed the optic lobes ( "sight" G).

    The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

  • These diverticula make their appearance before the closure of the anterior end of the neural tube; after the closure of the tube they are known as the optic vesicles.

    X. The Organs of the Senses and the Common Integument. 1c. The Organ of Sight 1918

  • For example, if a dog be deprived of one hemisphere, the eye which was supplied from it with nerve-fibres continues able to see, or to transmit impressions to the lower nerve-centre called the optic ganglion; for this eye will then mechanically follow the hand waved in front of it.

    Mind and Motion and Monism George John Romanes 1871

  • The brain of a fish is very small, compared with the spinal cord into which it is continued, and with the nerves which come off from it: of the segments of which it is composed -- the olfactory lobes, the cerebral hemisphere, and the succeeding divisions -- no one predominates so much over the rest as to obscure or cover them; and the so-called optic lobes are, frequently, the largest masses of all.

    On the Relations of Man to the Lower Animals Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • The brain of a fish is very small, compared with the spinal cord into which it is continued, and with the nerves which come off from it: of the segments of which it is composed -- the olfactory lobes, the cerebral hemisphere, and the succeeding divisions -- no one predominates so much over the rest as to obscure or cover them; and the so-called optic lobes are, frequently, the largest masses of all.

    Lectures and Essays Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • In fact, the ganglionic corpuscles of each eye may be considered as constituting a little brain, connected with the masses behind by the commissure, commonly called the optic nerve.

    Medical Essays, 1842-1882 Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

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