Glass

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /glɑːs/
• Rhymes: -ɑːs
• US IPA: /É¡læs/

Origin

From Middle English glas, from Old English glæs, from Proto-Germanic *glasą, possibly related root *glōaną ("to shine") (compare glow), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰel- ("to shine, shimmer, glow"); cognate with West Frisian glês, Low German Glas, Dutch glas, German Glas, Icelandic gler.

Noun

1. (uncountable) A solid, transparent substance made by melting sand with a mixture of soda, potash and lime.
   The tabletop is made of glass.
• 2013, Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Eyeglasses, 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 might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
1. A popular myth is that window glass is actually an extremely viscous liquid.
2. (physics, uncountable) Amorphous (non-crystalline) substance.
3. (attributive, in names of species) transparent or translucent
   glass frog;   glass shrimp;   glassworm
2. A vessel from which one drinks, especially one made of glass, plastic, or similar translucent or semi-translucent material.
   Fill my glass with milk please.
1. The quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel.
   Would you like a glass of milk?
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 2, Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.
3. (uncountable) Glassware.
   We collected art glass.
4. A mirror.
   She adjusted her lipstick in the glass.
5. A magnifying glass or telescope.
   We looked through the glass to see stars.
6. (sport) A barrier made of glass.
1. (basketball, colloquial) The backboard.
   He caught the rebound off of the glass.
2. (ice hockey) The clear, protective screen surrounding a hockey rink.
   He fired the outlet pass off the glass.
7. A barometer.
• Louis MacNeiceThe glass is falling hour by hour.
8. (obsolete) An hourglass.
• ShakespeareShe would not live
  The running of one glass.

Derived terms

Full definition of glass

Verb

1. (transitive) To furnish with glass; to glaze.
2. (transitive) To enclose with glass.
3. (transitive, colloquial) To strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.
• 1987, John Godber, Bouncers http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=f6-WVMj0qCUC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&sig=NzO0yHs5eqCDoOPewNE31SvzBBwJUDD. Any trouble last night?
  LES. Usual. Couple of punks got glassed.
• 2002, Geoff Doherty, A Promoter's Tale http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=f6cHAVAMwk8C&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&sig=NN6mhVE1htG-CUB-GekL3ZWPIMwI 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.
• 2003, Mark Sturdy, Pulp http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=sdF52lBdu3AC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&sig=o2nzWpBQX4v0Csr5DLGgTJrCy5cOne 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.
4. To bombard an area with such intensity (nuclear bomb, fusion bomb, etc) as to melt the landscape into glass.
5. To view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.
• 2000, Ben D. Mahaffey, 50 Years of Hunting and Fishing, page 95:Andy took his binoculars and glassed the area below.
6. To smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
7. (archaic, reflexive) To reflect; to mirror.
• MotleyHappy to glass themselves in such a mirror.
• ByronWhere the Almighty's form glasses itself in tempests.

Anagrams

• slags