Definitions

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

  • noun An eyeglass for one eye.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In photography, an uncorrected spectacle-lens, usually periscopic, of about 1½ inches diameter, and of a focus of 2 inches and upward.
  • noun A monoculous or one-eyed animal; a monocule.
  • noun A glass for one eye; a single eye-glass.

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

  • noun An eyeglass for one eye.

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

  • noun a single lens, usually in a wire frame, and used to correct vision for only one eye

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

  • noun lens for correcting defective vision in one eye; held in place by facial muscles

Etymologies

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

[French, from Late Latin monoculus, having one eye : Greek mono-, mono- + Latin oculus, eye; see okw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French monocle, from Late Latin monoculus ("one-eyed"), from mono- ("single") + oculus ("eye").

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Examples

  • Boingboing posted an image of a half-veil with a built-in monocle, which I passed along to SuRa, who then did this fabo drawing.

    Half veil, monocled frankwu 2008

  • Upon his monocle are the dried deposits of sauces that no French chef will ever stir again.

    Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Robbins, Tom 1976

  • The monocle was a British institution, and he would as soon have denied the divine right of kings as question an Englishman's right to wear what he pleased in his eye.

    The Voice in the Fog Harold MacGrath 1901

  • For those who aren't up to speed on obsolete eyewear, the monocle is a circular corrective lens attached to the wearer's clothing by a string and was popular with upper-class men as well as German military officers during World War I.

    StyleList 2009

  • The "monocle" feature originally surfaced as a hidden gem within Yelp 3.0.

    Original Signal - The best of Web 2.0 2010

  • The "monocle" feature originally surfaced as a hidden gem within Yelp 3.0.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • The "monocle" feature originally surfaced as a hidden gem within Yelp 3.0.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • The "monocle" feature originally surfaced as a hidden gem within Yelp 3.0.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • The "monocle" feature originally surfaced as a hidden gem within Yelp 3.0.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • It’s the “proper headwear” that should tell you exactly what kind of monocle through which The Chap views its world.

    The Chap: A new favorite thing for the aspiring man of gentility « The Retort 2009

Comments

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  • ... my monocle bent towards asphalt

    Andrew Lundwall, on the communal As/Is

    December 21, 2006

  • Well overdue for a comeback.

    June 4, 2008

  • But I'd get a headache from squinting to keep it in place.

    June 5, 2008

  • ಠ_ರೃ

    April 20, 2017