Meaning of multiplying glass | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A glass with a number of facets, causing an object to appear multiplied many times.
2. A magnifying glass.
   obsolete

Examples

“1694, N.H., The Ladies Dictionary, London: John Dunton, p. 95, […] ten to one but a Lady gets an Enemy when she refuses a Lover—who is generally so unreasonable an Animal, that he does not consider⟳, One poor Woman can suffice at once but for one Man; whereas if a Fam’d Beauty, or Fortune, she can never content all Pretenders—unless she had as many Bodies as she has Faces when she looks in a Multiplying Glass.”

“It may have⟳ one side, which must be convex, ground into little facets, like⟳ those of some jewels, while the other side is plain. Children know⟳ it by the name⟳ of a multiplying glass […]”

“When I look⟳ at a candle through a multiplying glass, I seem to see⟳ a dozen candles instead of one […]”

“Will he forgive⟳ that dim sight which I have⟳ of sin now, when sins scarce appeare to be sins unto me, and will he forgive⟳ that over-quick sight, when I shall see⟳ my sins through Satans multiplying glasse of desperation, when I shall thinke them greater then his mercy, upon my death bed?”

“1631, Ben Jonson, The New Inn, London: Thomas Alchorne, Act I, Scene 1, poring through a multiplying glasse, / Vpon a captiu’d crab-louse, or a cheese-mite / To be dissected, as the sports of nature, / With a neat Spanish needle”

“For all men are by nature provided of notable multiplying glasses, (that is their Passions and Selfe-love,) through which, every little payment appeareth a great grievance; but are destitute of those prospective glasses, (namely Morall and Civill Science,) to see⟳ a farre off the miseries that hang⟳ over them, and cannot without such payments be avoyded.”

CEFR level