glass
UK /ɡlɑːs/ · US /ɡlæs/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms glasses glassing glassed glasse
- noun (usually uncountable) An 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). “This tabletop is made of glass.”
- noun (countable, uncountable, by extension) Any 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.”
- noun (countable) A 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?”
- noun (metonymic) The quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel. “There is half a glass of milk in each pound of chocolate we produce.”
- noun (uncountable) Glassware. “We collected art glass.”
- noun A mirror. “She adjusted her lipstick in the glass.”
- noun A magnifying glass or loupe.
- noun A telescope.
- verb (transitive) To fit with glass; to glaze.
- verb (transitive) To enclose in glass.
- verb (transitive, UK, colloquial) To strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.
- verb (transitive, science fiction) To bombard an area (most often a planet) with such intensity (by means of a nuclear bomb, fusion bomb, etc) as to melt the landscape into glass.
- verb (transitive) To view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.
- verb (transitive) To smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
- verb (archaic, reflexive) To reflect; to mirror.
- verb (transitive) To make glassy.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun (computing) A solution stack consisting of the GemStone database and application server, Linux operating system, Apache web server, Smalltalk programming language, and Seaside web framework.
Synonyms
window or pane particularly in vehicles drinking glass glassful field glass spyglass methamphetamine methamphetamine hydrochloride Methedrine meth deoxyephedrine chalk chicken feed crank ice shabu trash looking glass glaze glass in glass over glaze over
Etymology
From 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, Low German and German Glas, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish glas, Norwegian Bokmål glass, Icelandic gler.
* As an English, Jewish and German surname, from the noun glass.
* Also as an English surname, from a nickname derived from French glas (“bell, tumult, clash of arms”).
* As a Celtic surname (Irish, Welsh, Cornish, and Scottish Gaelic), Anglicized from the adjective glas (“grey”).
* Also as a German surname, altered from the personal name Klass, shortened from Nikolaus, compare Nicholas.
* As a Slovene surname, Americanized and Germanized from Glas.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A hard, brittle, translucent, and commonly transparent substance, white or colored, having a conchoidal fracture, and made by fusing together sand or silica with lime, potash, soda, or lead oxide. It is used for window panes and mirrors, for articles of table and culinary use, for lenses, and various articles of ornament.
- noun Any substance having a peculiar glassy appearance, and a conchoidal fracture, and usually produced by fusion.
- verb To reflect, as in a mirror; to mirror; --used reflexively.
- verb To case in glass. [R.] Shak.
Etymology [OE. glas, gles, AS. glæs; akin to D., G., Dan., & Sw. glas, Icel. glas, gler, Dan. glar; cf. AS. glær amber, L. glaesum. Cf. Glare, n., Glaze, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “glass”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details