Definition of Hourglass

1. Noun. A sandglass that runs for sixty minutes.

Generic synonyms: Sandglass

Definition of Hourglass

1. n. An instrument for measuring time, especially the interval of an hour. It consists of a glass vessel having two compartments, from the uppermost of which a quantity of sand, water, or mercury occupies an hour in running through a small aperture unto the lower.

Definition of Hourglass

1. Noun. A clock made of two glass vessels connected with a narrow passage, with sand flowing through that passage. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Hourglass

1. [n -ES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Hourglass

houndstooth check
houngan
houngans
houp
houpelande
houpelandes
houppelande
houppelandes
hour
hour angle
hour change
hour changes
hour circle
hour hand
hour hands
houri
houris

Literary usage of Hourglass

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings edited by John Denison Champlin, Charles Callahan Perkins (1887)
"... shrouded in white drapery like an apparition, with a winged hourglass in one hand and a scythe over his shoulder, seizes him with his bony hand. ..."

2. Palæozoic Fossils by Geological Survey of Canada, Elkanah Billings, Joseph Frederick Whiteaves (1865)
"In general there^is, on each side of the joint, an enlargement of the stem, the segments in such cases having somewhat the form of an hourglass. Fig. 60. ..."

3. Palaeozoic Fossils by Geological Survey of Canada, Elkanah Billings, Joseph Frederick Whiteaves (1865)
"In general there^, on each side of the joint, an enlargement of the stem, the segments in such cases having somewhat the form of an hourglass. Fig. 60. Fig. ..."

4. Cooper's Works by James Fenimore Cooper, William Cullen Bryant (1855)
"As for offering up the Montauk a sacrifice on the altar of tobacco, as old Deacon hourglass used to say in his prayers*, it is a category to be averted by ..."

5. A Manual Flora of Madeira and the Adjacent Island of Porto Santo and the by Richard Thomas Lowe (1868)
"... or hourglass- shaped, the lower part sterile, upper 3-celled. Fr. a many- seeded gourd flatly ..."

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