a device with lenses or mirrors that makes far-away objects look bigger and closer so you can see them clearly
The young girl pointed her telescope at the moon and gasped in wonder.
From the mountain cabin, the elderly man set up a telescope to watch the distant eagles’ nest.
✦ From Italian ‘telescopio’, coined in the early 17th century from Greek ‘tēle’ meaning “far” and ‘skopein’ meaning “to look at”.
to make something shorter or smaller by sliding parts inside each other, or to compress events or time into a shorter form
The camping chair telescopes so it fits easily inside a backpack.
For the montage, the editor telescoped three hours of footage into two minutes.
✦ Derived from the noun ‘telescope’; figurative use recorded from the late 19th century, based on how the instrument’s tubes slide inside each other.
