Periscope - Definition And Meaning - Wordnik

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Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various tubular optical instruments that contain reflecting elements, such as mirrors and prisms, to permit observation from a position displaced from a direct line of sight.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun in photography, a photographic lens having a wide angle (90° or more).
  • noun A general view or comprehensive summary. [Rare.]
  • noun 2. An instrument by which objects in a horizontal view may be seen through a vertical tube.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare A general or comprehensive view.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A form of viewing device that allows the viewer to see things at a different height level and usually with minimal visibility.
  • noun obsolete : A general or comprehensive view.
  • verb intransitive To rise and peer around, in the manner of a periscope.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an optical instrument that provides a view of an otherwise obstructed field

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From peri- + -scope.

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Examples

  • How the levers on the right side of the periscope is placed decide what you see outside.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • The periscope is turned on and you are able to view the outside by clicing on the lense.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • The company's Barrington, N.J., showroom burgeoned with government-surplus supplies, an array of telescopes and a functioning 38-foot periscope from a Japanese submarine.

    He Supplied the Gadgets to Scientists of All Ages Stephen Miller 2012

  • There was a large hole in the pressure hull around one and a half meters to two meters, and now we know for sure that in result of that powerful blast for 75 or 80 percent of the crew died within 90 seconds since the submarine was at so-called periscope depth at the moment, which implies that all the crew were at battalion stations in the first two or three water-tight compartments.

    CNN Transcript - Larry King Live: Russian President Vladimir Putin Discusses Domestic and Foreign Affairs - September 8, 2000 2000

  • "Then the periscope is the one weak spot in a submarine?" asked

    The Boy Allies under Two Flags

  • The tinkle of broken glass sliding down the bamboo tube told that the periscope was a wreck.

    Panther Eye 1918

  • The mirror affair, which Mr. Holcombe called a periscope, was put in that day and worked amazingly well.

    The Case of Jennie Brice Mary Roberts Rinehart 1917

  • The mirror affair, which Mr. Holcombe called a periscope, was put in that day and worked amazingly well.

    The Case of Jennie Brice 1913

  • To avoid this tell-tale an instrument called a periscope has been invented, which looks like a bottle on the end of a tube; this has lenses and mirrors that reflect into the interior of the submarine whatever shows above water.

    Stories of Inventors The Adventures of Inventors and Engineers Russell Doubleday 1910

  • The principle of the periscope is the same as that of the "busybody," familiar to householders, and which is placed on the sill of an upper window, so that a person inside the house may see who is at the front door.

    Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Kelly Miller 1901

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synonyms (19)

Words with the same meaning

  1. Aqua-Lung
  2. air cylinder
  3. aquascope
  4. bathyscaphe
  5. bathysphere
  6. benthoscope
  7. diving bell
  8. diving boat
  9. diving chamber
  10. diving goggles
  11. diving helmet
  12. diving hood
  13. diving mask
  14. diving suit
  15. scuba
  16. snorkel
  17. submarine
  18. swim fins
  19. wet suit

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. optical instrument

same context (7)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. 'scope
  2. binocular
  3. eyepiece
  4. microscope
  5. radarscope
  6. spectroscope
  7. telescope

relateds (2)

relateds

  1. periscopic
  2. periscopically

rhymes (1)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. polariscope

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Comments

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  • sonofgroucho commented on the word periscope

    The only way is up.

    October 8, 2007

  • oroboros commented on the word periscope

    "Down periscope! Dive! Dive!" *aooga, aooga*

    October 9, 2007

  • reesetee commented on the word periscope

    So that's how you spell that sound!

    October 9, 2007

  • yarb commented on the word periscope

    ...the parcel

    which now had a little window cut in it

    though which a tiny periscope had been

    insinuated establishing that

    the contents were four small pots of jam.

    - Peter Reading, Dr Cooper's Story, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977

    June 26, 2008

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Tag » What Does The Word Periscope Mean