breeze
/bɹiːz/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms breezes breezing breezed brize briess breese
- noun A light, gentle wind. “The breeze rustled the papers on her desk.”
- noun (figurative) Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult. “After studying Latin, Spanish was a breeze.”
- noun (cricket) Wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength.
- noun An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel. “The discovery produced a breeze.”
- noun A brief workout for a racehorse.
- verb (usually with along) To move casually, in a carefree manner.
- verb (weather) To blow gently.
- verb To take a horse on a light run in order to understand the running characteristics of the horse and to observe it while under motion.
- verb (of fish) To swim near the surface of the water, causing ripples in the surface.
- noun A gadfly; a horsefly; a strong-bodied dipterous insect of the family Tabanidae.
- verb (intransitive) To buzz.
- noun Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace. See Wikipedia article on Clinker.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
cakewalk cinch doddle piece of cake walk in the park walkover zephyr gentle wind air picnic snap duck soup child's play pushover
Etymology
From the earlier (nautical) term brise, brize (“breeze”), from Middle English brees (“wind”). Ultimate origin obscure.
Variously supposed to derive from a Germanic source like Saterland Frisian Briese (“breeze”), West Frisian brys (“a cool wind”), Dutch bries (“breeze”), early Dutch brysen (“to blow cool and fresh”), or from Spanish brisa (“northeast wind”).
The earliest attestations are in Middle English brees (1460), Catalan brisa, and Italian brezza (all in 15th century), with Spanish (1504) and Portuguese briza (16th century) following closely after. The aforementioned Dutch cognates and French brise, however, are attested later than the term in English. The only internal hypothesis for any of those languages is a modification of Old Occitan bisa (“strong wind”), which is not widely accepted.
Compare also Albanian breshër (“hail”).
From Middle English brese, from Old English brēosa, variant of Old English brimsa (“gadfly”), from Proto-Germanic *bremusī (“gadfly”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerem- (“to make a noise, buzz, hum”). Cognate with Dutch brems (“horsefly, warblefly”), German Bremse (“gadfly, horsefly”), Danish bremse (“gadfly, horsefly”), Swedish broms (“gadfly, horsefly”). Related also to Middle English brimse (“gadfly”), French brize (“gadfly”), Old English bremman (“to rage, roar”), Latin fremō (“roar, snort, growl, grumble”). See also bream.
Probably from French braise (“burning coals”).
* As an English surname, spelling variant of Breese.
* As a Welsh surname, from ap Rhys (“son of Rhys”); see Reese.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A fly of various species, of the family Tabanidæ, noted for buzzing about animals, and tormenting them by sucking their blood; --called also horsefly, and gadfly. They are among the largest of two-winged or dipterous insects. The name is also given to different species of botflies. [Written also breese and brize.]
- noun A light, gentle wind; a fresh, soft-blowing wind.
- noun An excited or ruffed state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel; as, the discovery produced a breeze.
- noun Refuse left in the process of making coke or burning charcoal.
Etymology [OE. brese, AS. briósa; perh. akin to OHG. brimissa, G. breme, bremse, D. brems, which are akin to G. brummen to growl, buzz, grumble, L. fremere to murmur; cf. G. brausen, Sw. brusa, Dan. bruse, to roar, rush.]
Etymology [F. brise; akin to It. brezza breeze, Sp. briza, brisa, a breeze from northeast, Pg. briza northeast wind; of uncertain origin; cf. F. bise, Pr. bisa, OHG. bisa, north wind, Arm. biz northeast wind.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “breeze”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details