lorgnette

[ lawrn-yet ]

noun

1. a pair of eyeglasses mounted on a handle.
2. a pair of opera glasses mounted on a handle.

lorgnette

/ lɔːˈnjɛt /

noun

1. a pair of spectacles or opera glasses mounted on a handle

Word History and Origins

Origin of lorgnette¹

1795–1805; < French, derivative of lorgner to eye furtively; -ette

Word History and Origins

Origin of lorgnette¹

C19: from French, from lorgner to squint, from Old French lorgne squinting

Example Sentences

He held a pair of tortoiseshell lorgnette glasses to his eyes, to get a better look at the flames climbing the building’s walls.

From Literature

A lyrical aesthete and a Flaubertian prose polisher, he is pictured, in “Lucky Per,” as the sickly poet Enevoldsen, fussing with his lorgnette at a Copenhagen café while worrying about “where to put a comma.”

From The New Yorker

One hand carried a gigantic bag, the kind that holds passports, engagement diaries, and bridge scores, while the other hand toyed with that inevitable lorgnette, the enemy to other people’s privacy.

From Literature

And, like a Brontë sister in a box at the opera, Perry observes the drama from an omniscient perch, examining her characters as if through a lorgnette.

From New York Times

People lost things then that we don’t lose now, simply because we don’t use them: lorgnettes, pince-nez spectacles, chatelaine bags, fox tails, feather boas, auto starter cranks, pocket watches, watch fobs, watch keys .

From Washington Post

Related Words

• specs
• sunglasses