multiplying glass

Noun

multiplying glass (plural multiplying glasses)

1. A glass with a number of facets, causing an object to appear multiplied many times.
   • […] 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...1694, N.H., The Ladies Dictionary, London: John Dunton, p. 95
   • 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 […]1776, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 5, in A Survey of Experimental Philosophy, volume 2, London: T. Carnan and F. Newbery, page 284

   Synonyms:

   polyscope

2. (obsolete) A magnifying glass.
   • 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?a. 1631, John Donne, “Sermon preached upon Whitsunday”, in LXXX Sermons, London: Richard Royston, published 1640, page 343
   • 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 needle1631, Ben Jonson, The New Inn, London: Thomas Alchorne, Act I, Scene 1