vexing glass

English

Noun

vexing glass (plural vexing glasses)

1. A glass curiosity that is designed to create complex visual effects, often through the use of intricate surface patterns, and curved lenses or reflective surfaces.
   • 1900, Henry W. Cherouny, The Burial of the Apprentice, page 11:

     In the German quarter of the city of New York, that is, in that part of the great American metropolis where German life appears as if it were reflected in a vexing glass' ; where the houses are high , the rooms low , and the streets narrow ; where the sunbeams breed miasma from the grocer's cabbage , the saloon - keeper's empty barrels , and the landlord's garbage boxes on the sidewalks—there I found the habitation of the educated German mechanic.

   • 1909, Heinrich Oppenheimer, The Criminal Responsibility of Lunatics, page 197:

     Normal notions, correctly appreciated by the intellect, thus become caricature when reflected in the vexing-glass of the emotions, and it cannot be surprising if individuals with such a contrary mind are prone to act in a contrary manner .

   • 2019, Taking Stock – Twenty-Five Years of Comparative Literary Research, page 527:

     Müller achieves this presentist vexing-glass effect although he remains textually much closer to Shakespeare's play than Dürrenmatt .