telescope
Definitions
An optical instrument with lenses or mirrors for making distant objects appear nearer and larger.
望远镜（用透镜或反射镜使远处物体看起来更近更大的光学仪器）。
To slide or be forced together so one part fits inside another; to compress or condense into a smaller form or shorter time.
（使）叠套、套缩；压缩、精简（成更小的形式或更短的时间）。
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedtele- (far) + scope (look) = an instrument for looking at things far away. The verb sense comes from the design: early telescopes were made of tubes that slid inside one another to shorten for carrying, so 'to telescope' means to slide together or compress into less space or time.
Root scope still carries 4 more wordsWhy It Means This
Telescope is one word doing two jobs that come from a single physical fact: a sliding-tube body. As a noun it's the famous stargazing instrument (tele- 'far' + -scope 'look'). As a verb it borrows the mechanism rather than the looking — old brass telescopes collapsed by sliding their sections together, so anything that crushes or condenses into a shorter form is said to telescope.
Common Collocations
- 1.look through a telescope通过望远镜观察
- 2.space telescope太空望远镜
- 3.powerful telescope高倍望远镜
- 4.point a telescope将望远镜对准
- 5.telescope something into把……压缩成
Example Sentences
- 1.
She pointed the telescope at Saturn and could just make out its rings.
- 2.
The Hubble Space Telescope has sent back images of galaxies billions of light-years away.
- 3.
In the crash, the front of the train telescoped into the carriage behind it.
- 4.
The director telescoped three chapters of the novel into a single scene.