All 6 Uses of
spectacle
in
Great Expectations
- Joe and I going to church, therefore, must have been a moving spectacle for compassionate minds.†
Chpt 4 (definition 1) *
- And then he would rumple my hair the wrong way,—which from my earliest remembrance, as already hinted, I have in my soul denied the right of any fellow-creature to do,—and would hold me before him by the sleeve,—a spectacle of imbecility only to be equalled by himself.†
Chpt 12 (definition 1)
- The great numbers on their backs, as if they were street doors; their coarse mangy ungainly outer surface, as if they were lower animals; their ironed legs, apologetically garlanded with pocket-handkerchiefs; and the way in which all present looked at them and kept from them; made them (as Herbert had said) a most disagreeable and degraded spectacle.†
Chpt 28 (definition 1)
- His enjoyment of the spectacle I furnished, as he sat with his arms folded on the table, shaking his head at me and hugging himself, had a malignity in it that made me tremble.†
Chpt 53 (definition 1)
Uses with a very rare meaning:
- Wemmick explained to me while the Aged got his spectacles out, that this was according to custom, and that it gave the old gentleman infinite satisfaction to read the news aloud.†
Chpt 37 (definition 2)
- "Dear boy," he returned, "there's disguising wigs can be bought for money, and there's hair powder, and spectacles, and black clothes,— shorts and what not.†
Chpt 40 (definition 2) *
Definitions:
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(1) (spectacle) a notable or unusual event that attracts attention
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(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus) The term spectacles is also used to refer to eyeglasses.