/tel"euh skohp'/ , n., adj., v., telescoped, telescoping .
n.
1. an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Cf. radio telescope .
2. ( cap. ) Astron. the constellation Telescopium.
adj.
3. consisting of parts that fit and slide one within another.
v.t.
4. to force together, one into another, or force into something else, in the manner of the sliding tubes of a jointed telescope.
5. to shorten or condense; compress: to telescope the events of five hundred years into one history lecture.
v.i.
6. to slide together, or into something else, in the manner of the tubes of a jointed telescope.
7. to be driven one into another, as railroad cars in a collision.
8. to be or become shortened or condensed.
[ 1610-20; TELE- 1 + -SCOPE; r. telescopium ( telescopio ( ]