Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small magnifying glass used chiefly by watchmakers and jewelers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mass of pasty iron mingled with slag as taken from the Catalan forge when ready to be shingled.
  • noun A lens or magnifying-glass.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Any of a variety of small magnifying glasses, having a magnifying power from 2X to 20X, commonly of 10X, which may be held in the hand, or in some cases held within the eyesocket without the use of a hand. It is commonly used by jewelers and watchmakers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A magnifying glass, usually mounted in an eyepiece, often used by jewellers and watchmakers.
  • noun A type of short-range binoculars used by surgeons and dentists.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small magnifying glass (usually set in an eyepiece) used by jewelers and horologists

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, flawed gem, probably of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French loupe.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "not so much at being caught out and having to confess his lowly status to his cousin, as at this evidence of a flaw in the omniveillant maternal loupe" (Kavalier and Clay 9)

    August 13, 2008

  • Le veiller est la vie des hommes.

    French Emblems at Glasgow

    August 13, 2008

  • In computer software: "Loupe is a utility that displays a magnified view of whatever is beneath the mouse cursor, much like a jeweler or printer loupe. A loupe can be found in products like Adobe Acrobat, or it is available as a stand-alone desktop utility. The term is derived from a loupe magnifying glass, which is usually found to have a magnification of 10X" --Webopedia

    September 21, 2009