Looking-glass

[f. LOOKING vbl. sb. + GLASS.]

  1.  A glass to look in, in order to see one’s own face or figure; a mirror made of a plate of glass coated at the back with an amalgam of quicksilver; † applied occas. to a metal mirror (cf. GLASS sb.¹ 8 b).

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 1 b. Wherein dayly & hourly I myght loke, as in a myrour or lokyng-glass.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, V. iii. 261. Lend me a Looking-glasse.

1608.  Willet, Hexapla Exod., 857. The brasen lauer was indeed made of the womens looking glasses.

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 451, ¶ 1. Seeing all her Wrinkles represented in a large Looking-glass.

1728.  Ramsay, Lass & Mirror, 3. The leal-hearted Looking-glass With truths addrest the lovely Lass.

1771.  Wesley, Jrnl., 22 July. The sea was smooth as a looking-glass.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, ii. 19. Let AB, fig. 16., be a plane mirror or looking-glass.

1876.  A. Laing, Lindores Abbey, xxvi. 384. The looking glass was invariably covered up in the chamber where the dead lay.

  b.  fig. (In the 16th and 17th cents. frequently used in the titles of books.) Now rare (= ‘mirror’).

1556.  Aurelio & Isab., L iij. The parson of a kinge is a thorrou persinge an sheninge lookinge glasse, in the whiche all the subgects sees them selfs.

1575.  Tymme (title), A Looking Glasse for the Court.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xvii. 269. The holy Scripture, is … a Looking glass to shew vs our spotes and blemishes.

1600.  Breton, Pasquils Madcappe, ii. Beautie is but a Babies looking glasse.

1656.  Trapp, Comm. Ps. xxxv. 18. Great men are the Looking-glasses of the Country, according to which most men dress themselves.

1658.  W. Sanderson, Graphice, 5. The Eyes, the Looking-glasses of Nature.

1792.  (title) The Looking-Glass for the Mind; or Intellectual Mirror.

1847.  Emerson, Poems (1857), 74. Each to each a looking-glass, Reflects his figure that doth pass.

  2.  As the name of a material: Plate glass, or glass silvered for use as a mirror.

1682.  N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, I. 97. The Tester was all fac’d with Looking-Glass.

1764.  Delaval, in Phil. Trans., LIV. 233. Inclosed between small plates of thick looking-glass.

1799.  G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 178. How to Quicksilver the inside of Glass Globes, so as to make them look like Looking-glass.

1886.  D. C. Murray, Cynic Fortune, viii. He took stock of his features in the little triangle of cracked looking-glass affixed to the wall.

  3.  In the plant-names Lady’s looking-glass, Venus’ looking-glass (Campanula Speculum): see LADY, VENUS.

  4.  slang. A chamber-pot.

1622.  Beaum. & Fl., Beggar’s Bush, II. iii. Ha! A Looking-glasse!

1638.  Brathwait, Barnabee’s Jrnl., II. (1818), 59. Mid-night waking, And a looking-glasse there taking, Chamber-pot was hol’d quite thorow.

1709.  Brit. Apollo, II. No. 43. 2/2. Q. Why is a Chamber-Pot call’d a Looking-Glass? A. Because many rarely see their faces in any other.

  5.  attrib. and Comb., as looking-glass calm, -fitter, -frame, -maker, -man, -plate, -tin; looking-glass-panelled adj.; looking-glass carp (see quot.); looking-glass tree, Heritiera littoralis, the leaves of which are silvery on the under side; looking-glass writing, writing done backwards, so as to be legible by means of a mirror.

1840.  Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 194. A *looking-glass calm with bitter cold white frost.

1890.  Daily News, 8 Sept., 5/5. A *‘looking-glass carp’ … differs from the ordinary carp in having very few, and those very large, scales.

Mod. Advt.  Junior *Looking-glass Fitter wanted.

1688.  Parker & Stalker, Japaning, v. 25. *Looking-glass-frames.

1611.  Cotgr., Miroaillier, a *looking-glasse maker.

1723.  Lond. Gaz., No. 6137/4. William Turing,… Looking-glass-maker.

1682.  T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 67 (1713), II. 164. The *Looking-glass-man you almost promised to deal withal the last time we met.

1902.  Westm. Gaz., 3 July, 3/2. The cheapest bedroom furniture means a *looking-glass panelled wardrobe.

1703.  T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 152. These *Looking-glass-plates are ground smooth and flat, and Polished.

1703.  T. S., Art’s Improv., I. 55. Take a Plate of Polish’d Steel, which cover with that Orange, Tawny Mineral, call’d Mine de Plomb, Ground with Linseed-Oil and *Looking-glass Tin.

1866.  Treas. Bot., *Looking-glass tree, Heritiera.

1902.  Westm. Gaz., 29 Aug., 3/1. Notes … made with the left hand in *‘looking-glass’ writing.