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Glass

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glass¹

  • /ɡlɑːs/ UK
  • /ɡlæs/ Canada, US
  • [ɡlɛəs] Canada, US
  • [ɡleəs] Canada, US
  • [ɡläːs] Australia, New Zealand
  • [ɡlɐːs] Australia, New Zealand
  • [ɡlas] Ireland, Northern England, Scotland
  • [ɡläs] Ireland, Northern England, Scotland

Rhymes with -ɑːs, -æs

Where it comes from

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.

noun glasses · glasse

  1. uncountable, usually 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.
  2. broadly, countable, uncountable 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.
  3. 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?
  4. countable, metonymically, uncountable The quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel. There is half a glass of milk in each pound of chocolate we produce.
  5. uncountable Glassware. We collected art glass.
  6. countable, uncountable A mirror. She adjusted her lipstick in the glass.
  7. countable, uncountable A magnifying glass or loupe.
  8. countable, uncountable A 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 […]
  9. colloquial, countable, uncountable The backboard. He caught the rebound off the glass.
  10. countable, uncountable The clear, protective screen surrounding a hockey rink. He fired the outlet pass off the glass.
  11. countable, uncountable A 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.
  12. attributive, countable, uncountable Transparent or translucent. glass frog;  glass shrimp;  glass worm
  13. countable, obsolete, uncountable An hourglass. Were my Wiues Liuer / Infected (as her life) ſhe would not liue / The running of one Glaſſe.
  14. informal, uncountable Lenses, considered collectively. Her new camera was incompatible with her old one, so she needed to buy new glass.
  15. archaic, countable Synonym 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?’

verb glasses · glassing · glassed · glasse

  1. transitive To fit with glass; to glaze.
  2. transitive To enclose in glass. As Iewels in Christall for some Prince to buy. / Who tendring their own worth from whence they were glast,
  3. abbreviation, clipping, transitive Clipping of fibreglass (“to fit, cover, fill, or build, with fibreglass-reinforced resin composite (fiberglass)”).fibreglass
  4. UK, colloquial, transitive To 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.
  5. transitive 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. “The Covenant don’t ‘miss’ anything when they glass a planet,” the Master Chief replied.
  6. transitive To view through an optical instrument such as binoculars. Andy took his binoculars and glassed the area below.
  7. transitive To smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
  8. archaic, reflexive To reflect; to mirror. Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror.
  9. transitive To make glassy. Not only were his eyes averted from mine, but they were glassed to an uncanny degree.
  10. intransitive To 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.

Glass²

Where it comes from

* 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.

proper noun

  1. A surname.

GLASS³

proper noun

  1. A solution stack consisting of the GemStone database and application server, Linux operating system, Apache web server, Smalltalk programming language, and Seaside web framework.

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