glass

plural glasses · alternative obsolete glasse

1. uncountableusuallyAn 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.

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   A popular myth is that window glass is actually an extremely viscous liquid.

   I can eat glass, it does not hurt me

   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.

   2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist

2. broadlycountableuncountableAny 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. 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?

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   Fill my glass with milk, please.

4. countablemetonymicallyuncountableThe quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel.

   There is half a glass of milk in each pound of chocolate we produce.

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   Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   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 own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

5. uncountableGlassware.

   We collected art glass.

6. countableuncountableA mirror.

   She adjusted her lipstick in the glass.

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   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 learning how to look by his glass, how to speak by his glass, how to sigh by his glass, how to court his mistress by his glass? I would wish him no other plague, but to have a mistress as brittle as glass.

   Beholding her charms in the glaſs, ſhe wandered over a wilderneſs of vain fancies.

   1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 11

   As of old, he took down his portable glass hanging on a nail, and carefully wiping it, replaced it in its case.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 216

7. countableuncountableA magnifying glass or loupe.
8. countableuncountableA 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 […]

   1912, The Encyclopædia of Sport & Games

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   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 end.

   1923 October, Robert Frost, “[Notes.] The Star-splitter.”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 29

9. A barrier made of solid, transparent material.
   1. colloquialcountableuncountableball gamesThe backboard.

      He caught the rebound off the glass.

   2. countableuncountablehobbiesThe clear, protective screen surrounding a hockey rink.

      He fired the outlet pass off the glass.

10. countableuncountableSynonym of barometer (“instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure”).

    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.

    1938, Louis MacNeice, “Bagpipe Music”, in The Earth Compels, page 59

    Synonyms: barometer

11. countablefigurativelyuncountableSynonym of barometer (“anything used as a gauge or indicator”).

    The Miss Guests, who associated chiefly on terms of condescension with the families of St Ogg’s, and were the glass of fashion there, took some exception to Maggie’s manners.

    1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons

    Synonyms: barometer

12. attributivecountableuncountableTransparent or translucent.

    glass frog;  glass shrimp;  glass worm

13. countableobsoleteuncountableAn hourglass.

    Were my Wiues Liuer / Infected (as her life) ſhe would not liue / The running of one Glaſſe.

    c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

14. informaluncountableartsLenses, considered collectively.

    Her new camera was incompatible with her old one, so she needed to buy new glass.

15. archaiccountableSynonym 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?’

    1790, Jane Austen, “Love and Freindship”, in Juvenilia

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    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 having two doors, one on each side, with one window in front, as well as a small one behind, all furnished with Venetians and glasses, give it, in those respects, some claim to alliance with the [chariot].

    1810, Thomas Williamson, East India Vade-Mecum..., page 323

    Synonyms: window or pane, particularly in vehicles

present singular third person glasses · participle present glassing · participle past glassed · past glassed · alternative obsolete glasse

1. transitiveTo fit with glass; to glaze.
2. transitiveTo enclose in glass.

   As Iewels in Christall for some Prince to buy. / Who tendring their own worth from whence they were glast,

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

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   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 VVhite Glaſs'd Earth, […]

   1664, Robert Boyle, “Experiment XLIV”, in Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours. […], London: […] Henry Herringman […], →OCLC, part III (Containing Promiscuous Experiments about Colours), page 333

3. abbreviationclippingtransitiveClipping of fibreglass (“to fit, cover, fill, or build, with fibreglass-reinforced resin composite (fiberglass)”).
4. UKcolloquialtransitiveTo 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.

   1987, John Godber, Bouncers page 19

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   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.

   2002, Geoff Doherty, A Promoter's Tale page 72

   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.

   2003, Mark Sturdy, Pulp page 139

5. transitiveliteratureTo 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.

   2003, Eric Nylund, Halo: First Strike, New York: Del Rey, →ISBN, page 155

6. transitiveTo view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.

   Andy took his binoculars and glassed the area below.

   2000, Ben D. Mahaffey, 50 Years of Hunting and Fishing, page 95

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   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 lightweight camera tripod […]

   2000, Field & Stream, volume 105, number 6, page 87

7. transitiveTo smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
8. archaicreflexiveTo reflect; to mirror.

   Happy to glass themselves in so brilliant a mirror.

   1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

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   Where the Almighty's form glasses itself in tempests.

   1818, Lord Byron, “Canto IV”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Fourth, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXXXIII

9. transitiveTo make glassy.

   Not only were his eyes averted from mine, but they were glassed to an uncanny degree.

   2018, Harry Leon Wilson, Ruggles of Red Gap, →ISBN, page 199

10. 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.

    2012, Keith Duggan, Cliffs Of Insanity: A Winter On Ireland's Big Waves, page 32

1. A surname.

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