telescope
noun
[ ˈtɛlɪskəʊp ]
• an optical instrument designed to make distant objects appear nearer, containing an arrangement of lenses, or of curved mirrors and lenses, by which rays of light are collected and focused and the resulting image magnified.
telescope
verb
• (with reference to an object made of concentric tubular parts) slide or cause to slide into itself, so that it becomes smaller.
• "five steel sections that telescope into one another"
Origin:
mid 17th century: from Italian telescopio or modern Latin telescopium, from tele- ‘at a distance’ + -scopium (see -scope).
