hand glass

English

Alternative forms

handglass, hand-glass

Noun

hand glass (plural hand glasses)

1. A small glassyd frame for the protection of plants.
   • 1787, William Curtis, editor, The Botanical Magazine, Volume 1, part 4:

     s it grows naturally in woods and shady places, it will thrive best in a mixture of bog-earth and loam placed in a north border; if planted in the open border, it will require to be covered with a hand-glass during winter, and in the spring, when in bloom

2. A small mirror with a handle.
   • 1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna‎, L.C. Page, →OCLC:

     "Oh, thank you. I love to fix people's hair," exulted Pollyanna, carefully laying down the hand-glass and reaching for a comb. "I sha'n't do much to-day, of course—I'm in such a hurry for you to see how pretty you are; but some day I'm going to take it all down and have a perfectly lovely time with it," she cried, touching with soft fingers the waving hair above the sick woman's forehead.

   • 1918, Isabel Ostrander, The Island of Intrigue, Chapter 1:

     She laughed again, in a relieved way this time, as if her innocent vanity were appeased and reached for the silver handglass.
     "You've no idea," she remarked, confidentially, "what money will do for your appearance, when you're beginning to go off a little in looks. […] "

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC:

     The mirror was in shadow. She rubbed her handglass briskly on her woollen vest against her full wagging bub. Peering into it. Lines in her eyes. It wouldn’t pan out somehow.

References

• “hand”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.