subs. (once literary: now chiefly colloquial).—1. An eye. For synonyms, see GLIMS.
1600. JONSON, Cynthia’s Revels, i. 3. Whose OPTIQUES haue drunke the spirit of beautie.
1782. COWPER, Hope, 494. From which our nicer OPTICS turn away.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in Londom [DICK’S], 56. Those three nymphs who have so much dazzled your OPTICS.
1836. M. SCOTT, The Cruise of the Midge, 187. I distinctly saw, either with my bodily OPTIC, or my mind’s eye, I am not quite certain which to this hour, a dark figure standing on the long-yard.
1842. THOMAS EGERTON WILKS, Bamboozling. I’ve got a pain in my OPTICS.
1851. HAWTHORNE, The House of the Seven Gables, xvi. She screwed her dim OPTICS to their acutest point.
1888. Daily Telegraph, 15 Nov. I’ve got my OPTIC on ’em and shall have ’em by-and-by.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 10 April. A deep cut under the dexter OPTIC.
2. (old).—An optic-glass; a spy-glass.
d. 1721. PRIOR, Celia to Damon. When you Love’s Joys through Honour’s OPTIC view.
