A show; something exhibited to view; usually, something presented to view as extraordinary, or something that is beheld as unusual and worthy of special notice. Thus we call things exhibited for amusement, public spectacles, as the combats of gladiators in ancient Rome. We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. 7 Corinthians 4:9.

Any thing seen; a sight. A drunkard is a shocking spectacle.

Spectacles, in the plural, glasses to assist the sight.

Figuratively, something that aids the intellectual sight. Shakespeare needed not the spectacles of books to read nature.