[f. EYE sb.1 + GLASS.]
† 1. The crystalline lens of the eye. Obs.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 268. Your eye-glasse Is thicker then a Cuckolds Horne.
2. A glass to shield or protect the eye.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 65. Wearing a visor with eye-glasses in it.
3. † a. A magnifying glass, a microscope (obs.). b. In mod. use, a lens of glass or crystal for assisting defective sight. Double eye-glass, (pair of) eyeglasses: two such lenses mounted side by side so as to assist the sight of both eyes; the name is by usage restricted to a pair of lenses to be held in the hand or kept in position by a spring on the nose; those which are secured by pieces of metal placed over the ears being called spectacles.
1767. Harmer, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 283. I have often found, by the help of an eye-glass, that … I passed over great multitudes of eggs.
1807. Director, I. 233. He uses his eye-glass more than his prayer-book.
1859. G. Meredith, R. Feverel, II. xiii. 254. Ripton had to learn that eyes are bearable, but eye-glasses an abomination.
1863. Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict. (1878), I. ii. 17. The old man put a double gold eyeglass over his nose, and began to read.
1883. F. M. Peard, Contrad., xxvii. She fancied there had been something of the eye-glass manner about him.
1883. F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, iii. She wore gold-rimmed eyeglasses.
4. The lens at that end of any optical instrument to which the eye is applied.
1664. Phil. Trans., I. 2. He useth three Eye-Glasses for his great Telescopes.
1672. Gregory, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 242. The … plano-convex eyeglass.
1704. Newton, Opticks, I. I. viii. (1721), 92. A pretty good Perspective … made with a concave Eye-glass.
1782. Ramsden, in Phil. Trans. (1783), LXXIII. 99. Thus we have a system of eye-glasses which may be taken out of the telescope.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 484. The focal distance of the eye-glass.
1837. Goring & Pritchard, Microgr., 56. The solar focus of its eye-glass.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., I. ii. 31. The other to magnify this image, and from being next the eye of the observer, called the eye-glass.
5. A glass adapted for the application of remedies to the eye.
1842. Dunglison, Med. Lex., Eye Glass, Scaphium oculare.
1884. in Syd. Soc. Lex., Eye-glass, a hollow cup-shaped glass for applying lotions to the eye.
Hence Eyeglassed a., furnished with an eyeglass or eyeglasses.
1848. Clough, Bothie, I. 9. Noble ladies … Bowing their eye-glassed brows.
1891. Mary E. Mann, Winter’s Tale, II. II. iv. 181. The eyeglassed young man.
