All 24 Uses of
spectacle
in
1984 by Orwell
- This happened about once a month, and was a popular spectacle.
p. 23..9 (definition 1) *spectacle = event that attracts attention
- He raised his head for a moment: again the hostile spectacle-flash.†
p. 45..2 (definition 1)
Uses with a very rare meaning:
- He had a trick of resettling his spectacles on his nose which was curiously disarming — in some indefinable way, curiously civilized.†
p. 10..9 (definition 2)
- It was a lean Jewish face, with a great fuzzy aureole of white hair and a small goatee beard — a clever face, and yet somehow inherently despicable, with a kind of senile silliness in the long thin nose, near the end of which a pair of spectacles was perched.†
p. 12..6 (definition 2)
- He had taken off his spectacles and was in the act of resettling them on his nose with his characteristic gesture.†
p. 17..3 (definition 2)
- His father he remembered more vaguely as dark and thin, dressed always in neat dark clothes (Winston remembered especially the very thin soles of his father's shoes) and wearing spectacles.†
p. 29..3 (definition 2)
- With the deep, unconscious sigh which not even the nearness of the telescreen could prevent him from uttering when his day's work started, Winston pulled the speakwrite towards him, blew the dust from its mouthpiece, and put on his spectacles.†
p. 37..5 (definition 2)
- He looked up, and his spectacles darted a hostile flash in Winston's direction.†
p. 41..8 (definition 2)
- When the Hate was over he returned to his cubicle, took the Newspeak dictionary from the shelf, pushed the speakwrite to one side, cleaned his spectacles, and settled down to his main job of the morning.†
p. 43..8 (definition 2)
- His head was thrown back a little, and because of the angle at which he was sitting, his spectacles caught the light and presented to Winston two blank discs instead of eyes.†
p. 53..9 (definition 2)
- He was a man of perhaps sixty, frail and bowed, with a long, benevolent nose, and mild eyes distorted by thick spectacles.†
p. 94..1 (definition 2)
- His spectacles, his gentle, fussy movements, and the fact that he was wearing an aged jacket of black velvet, gave him a vague air of intellectuality, as though he had been some kind of literary man, or perhaps a musician.†
p. 94..2 (definition 2)
- He peered at Winston over the top of his spectacles.†
p. 94..5 (definition 2)
- He went back to his cubicle, sat down, threw the fragment of paper casually among the other papers on the desk, put on his spectacles and hitched the speakwrite towards him. five minutes,' he told himself, 'five minutes at the very least!†
p. 107..1 (definition 2)
- He re-adjusted his spectacles on his nose, sighed, and drew the next batch of work towards him, with the scrap of paper on top of it.†
p. 108..0 (definition 2)
- Wandering about among his worthless stock, with his long nose and thick spectacles and his bowed shoulders in the velvet jacket, he had always vaguely the air of being a collector rather than a tradesman.†
p. 150..9 (definition 2)
- With the curious, disarming friendliness that he always managed to put in to the gesture he resettled his spectacles on his nose.†
p. 158..1 (definition 2)
- With his characteristic gesture O'Brien resettled his spectacles on his nose.†
p. 169..9 (definition 2)
- By the third day his eyes ached unbearably and his spectacles needed wiping every few minutes.†
p. 183..1 (definition 2)
- Also he was not wearing his spectacles.†
p. 224..6 (definition 2) *
- His questioners now were not ruffians in black uniforms but Party intellectuals, little rotund men with quick movements and flashing spectacles, who worked on him in relays over periods which lasted — he thought, he could not be sure — ten or twelve hours at a stretch.†
p. 241..6 (definition 2)
- He resettled his spectacles thoughtfully, and took a pace or two up and down.†
p. 245..7 (definition 2)
- In almost the old manner he resettled his spectacles on his nose.†
p. 258..9 (definition 2)
- Even his spectacles seemed to wear an ironical gleam.†
p. 260..5 (definition 2)
Definitions:
-
(1) (spectacle) a notable or unusual event that attracts attention
-
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus) The term spectacles is also used to refer to eyeglasses.