lorgnon

(French lɔrɲɔ̃)

1. (Clothing & Fashion) a monocle or pair of spectacles

2. (Clothing & Fashion) another word for lorgnette

[C19: from French, from lorgner; see lorgnette]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

lor•gnette

(lɔrnˈyɛt)

n.

a pair of eyeglasses or opera glasses mounted on a handle.

[1795–1805; < French, derivative of lorgner to eye furtively, Middle French, derivative of lorgne squinting (of uncertain orig.); see -ette]

Translations

Lorgnon

References in classic literature ?

The General made no reply to this announcement; but took up his opera-glass--the double-barrelled lorgnon was not invented in those days--and pretended to examine the house; but Rebecca saw that his disengaged eye was working round in her direction, and shooting out bloodshot glances at her and George.

View in context

Henri Muller was so popular with audiences in the 1830s that a Parisian fashion magazine later ascribed the tendency of elegant young men to affect "des airs de poitrinaire" to the influence of "un drame d'Alexandre Dumas" ("Premier Lorgnon" 409).

The gallant invalid: the stage consumptive and the making of a Canadian myth

de Balzac and Le Lorgnon. Like Girardin, George Sand adopted a pseudonymous identity to acquire the invisibility necessary to move freely about the city.

Nesci, Catherine. Le Flaneur et les flaneuses: Les Femmes et la ville a l'epoque romantique

Full of paintings and sculptures which the guide wants to display 'dans l'ordre' (1, 656), and which Emma inspects through her lorgnon like a gallery visitor, the cathedral is presented as an exhibition space where curiosites are displayed in nave and transept: 'Monsieur desire voir les curiosites de l'eglise?' asks the verger (1, 655); 'Madame desire voir les curiosites de l'eglise?' (1, 656).