/ɡlɑːs/, /ɡlæs/, [ɡlɛəs]
OriginFrom Middle English glas, from Old English glæs, from Proto-West Germanic *glas, from Proto-Germanic *glasą, possibly related to Proto-Germanic *glōaną (“to shine”) (compare glow), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰleh₁- (“to shine, shimmer, glow”).
Cognate with West Frisian glês, Dutch glas, Low German Glas, German Glas, Swedish glas, Icelandic gler.
- uncountable, usuallyAn amorphous solid, often transparent substance, usually made by melting silica sand with various additives (for most purposes, a mixture of soda, potash and lime is added).
“The tabletop is made of glass.”
“A popular myth is that window glass is actually an extremely viscous liquid.”
“The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we migh”
- broadly, countable, uncountableAny amorphous solid (one without a regular crystal lattice).
“Metal glasses, unlike those based on silica, are electrically conductive, which can be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the application.”
- countableA vessel from which one drinks, especially one made of glass, plastic, or similar translucent or semi-translucent material.
“Would you like a glass of wine?”
“Fill my glass with milk, please.”
- countable, metonymically, uncountableThe quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel.
“There is half a glass of milk in each pound of chocolate we produce.”
“Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.”
“At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its ”
- uncountableGlassware.
“We collected art glass.”
- countable, uncountableA mirror.
“She adjusted her lipstick in the glass.”
“1599, Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus, Act III, Scene 1, J.M. Dent & Co., 1904, p. 67,
[…] for what lady can abide to love a spruce silken-face courtier, that stands every morning two or three hours lea”
“Beholding her charms in the glaſs, ſhe wandered over a wilderneſs of vain fancies.”
- countable, uncountableA magnifying glass or loupe.
- countable, uncountableA telescope.
“Haviers, or stags which have been gelded when young, have no horns, as is well known, and in the early part of the stalking season, when seen through a glass, might be mistaken for hummels […]”
“He got a good glass for six hundred dollars.
His new job gave him leisure for star-gazing.
Often he bid me come and have a look
Up the brass barrel, velvet black inside,
At a star quaking in the other”
- colloquial, countable, uncountableThe backboard.
“He caught the rebound off the glass.”
- countable, uncountableThe clear, protective screen surrounding a hockey rink.
“He fired the outlet pass off the glass.”
- countable, uncountableA barometer.
“The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall for ever / But if you break the bloody glass you won’t hold up the weather.”
- attributive, countable, uncountableTransparent or translucent.
“glass frog; glass shrimp; glass worm”
- countable, obsolete, uncountableAn hourglass.
“Were my Wiues Liuer / Infected (as her life) ſhe would not liue / The running of one Glaſſe.”
- informal, uncountableLenses, considered collectively.
“Her new camera was incompatible with her old one, so she needed to buy new glass.”
- archaic, countableSynonym of window or pane, particularly in vehicles.
“[N]o sooner had we entered Holbourn than letting down one of the Front Glasses I enquired of every decent-looking Person that we passed ‘If they had seen my Edward?’”
“Ladies are usually conveyed about Calcutta, or any where for short distances, in a kind of palanquin, called a boҫhah... Its deep shape, and its seat, much resemble the [English sedan chair]; but havi”
- transitiveTo fit with glass; to glaze.
- transitiveTo enclose in glass.
“As Iewels in Christall for some Prince to buy. / Who tendring their own worth from whence they were glast,”
“And to ſatisfie my ſelf, that the diverſity came not from the Paper, vvhich one might ſuſpect capable of imbibing the Liquor, and altering the Colour, I made the Tryal upon a flat piece of purely VVhi”
- abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, transitiveClipping of fibreglass (“to fit, cover, fill, or build, with fibreglass-reinforced resin composite (fiberglass)”).
- UK, colloquial, transitiveTo strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.
“JUDD. Any trouble last night?
LES. Usual. Couple of punks got glassed.”
“I often mused on what the politicians or authorities would say if they could see for themselves the horrendous consequences of someone who’d been glassed, or viciously assaulted.”
“One night he was in this nightclub in Sheffield and he got glassed by this bloke who’d been just let out of prison that day.”
- transitiveTo bombard an area with such intensity (by means of a nuclear bomb, fusion bomb, etc) as to melt the landscape into glass.
““The Covenant don’t ‘miss’ anything when they glass a planet,” the Master Chief replied.”
- transitiveTo view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.
“Andy took his binoculars and glassed the area below.”
“One of the keys to glassing effectively is supporting your binoculars. Advanced glassers who scan lots of country for long periods of time, or who use binoculars of 10X power or more, often use a ligh”
- transitiveTo smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
- archaic, reflexiveTo reflect; to mirror.
“Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror.”
“Where the Almighty's form glasses itself in tempests.”
- transitiveTo make glassy.
“Not only were his eyes averted from mine, but they were glassed to an uncanny degree.”
- intransitiveTo become glassy.
“Bourez had timed it perfectly: a wind that was forecast for the morning began to stir just after his arrival and the sea glassed off for a brief period before the waves grew bigger and bigger.”
- A surname.
- A solution stack consisting of the GemStone database and application server, Linux operating system, Apache web server, Smalltalk programming language, and Seaside web framework.
Formsglasses(plural) · glasse(alternative, obsolete) · glasses(present, singular, third-person) · glassing(participle, present) · glassed(participle, past) · glassed(past)