v. [f. ‘collīmāre,’ an erroneous reading, found in some edd. of Cicero, of L. collīneāre, f. col-, com- together + līnea line, līneāre to bring into a straight line. Collīmāre long passed as a genuine word, and was adopted by some astronomers who wrote in Latin (e.g., Kepler Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, Frankfort 1604, p. 211; Littré) and thence passed into the mod. langs. The proper word would be collineate.]
† 1. (See quots.) Obs.
1623. Cockeram, Collimate, to leuell or winke with one eye.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Collimate, to wink with one eye, to level or aim at a mark.
1721. Bailey, Collimate, to level at, or aim at a Mark [1731–90 or hit the Mark].
2. trans. a. To place or adjust (a telescope) so that the line of sight is in the required position; to place (two telescopes, lenses, etc.) so that their optical axes are in the same line. b. To make parallel, as a lens, the rays of light passing through it. Hence Collimating ppl. a.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 349 s.v. Collimator, The cross wires in the supplementary or collimating telescope.
1868. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., 244. An instrument with the cross wires perfectly adjusted is said to be correctly collimated. Ibid. (1878), Stargazing, 394. The little object-glass … or collimating lens, as it is called.
