Telescope

English Meaning

An optical instrument used in viewing distant objects, as the heavenly bodies.

1. An arrangement of lenses or mirrors or both that gathers visible light, permitting direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects.
2. Any of various devices, such as a radio telescope, used to detect and observe distant objects by their emission, transmission, reflection, or other interaction with invisible radiation.
3. To cause to slide inward or outward in overlapping sections, as the cylindrical sections of a small hand telescope do.
4. To make more compact or concise; condense.
5. To slide inward or outward in or as if in overlapping cylindrical sections: a camp bucket that telescopes into a disk.